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How Auto Companies Are Making Their Cars Lighter
Full disclosure: I own shares of Alcoa and Ford Motor Company.
How Auto Companies Are Making Their Cars Lighter
Car companies and parts suppliers spend time and money to shed pounds
By Jeff Bennett
June 7, 2016 10:04 p.m. ET
Troy, Mich.—Hunched over a microscope that magnifies objects 2,000 times, two engineers from a Norwegian-based maker of aluminum specialty parts are studying a roof-rail component they just finished handcrafting for a new automotive customer.
What the engineers see neatly sums up the future of auto manufacturing: a part that is just as strong as the one it is replacing, but at less than half the weight.
The global auto industry is leaving no molecule untouched as it searches for new and different ways to wring weight from its vehicles in the quest to reduce carbon emissions and boost fuel economy.
Stricter emissions and fuel-economy standards in the U.S. and many other parts of the world have auto makers not only using more aluminum but sampling other potential materials, such as magnesium, high-strength steels, carbon fiber, compressed wood and even soy. For every 10 pounds they can squeeze out of their machines, it means about 10 to 15 pounds less of carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere each year.
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Mr. Bennett is a Wall Street Journal reporter in Detroit. Email jeff.bennett@wsj.com.
Car companies and parts suppliers spend time and money to shed pounds
By Jeff Bennett
June 7, 2016 10:04 p.m. ET
Troy, Mich.—Hunched over a microscope that magnifies objects 2,000 times, two engineers from a Norwegian-based maker of aluminum specialty parts are studying a roof-rail component they just finished handcrafting for a new automotive customer.
What the engineers see neatly sums up the future of auto manufacturing: a part that is just as strong as the one it is replacing, but at less than half the weight.
The global auto industry is leaving no molecule untouched as it searches for new and different ways to wring weight from its vehicles in the quest to reduce carbon emissions and boost fuel economy.
Stricter emissions and fuel-economy standards in the U.S. and many other parts of the world have auto makers not only using more aluminum but sampling other potential materials, such as magnesium, high-strength steels, carbon fiber, compressed wood and even soy. For every 10 pounds they can squeeze out of their machines, it means about 10 to 15 pounds less of carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere each year.
....
....
Mr. Bennett is a Wall Street Journal reporter in Detroit. Email jeff.bennett@wsj.com.
