Lightweighting remains a continuing challenge for automotive manufacturers even as more and more vehicles are turning electric and losing their traditional combustion components. Although the energy capacity of advanced lithium-ion batteries has improved considerably over recent years, their weight may still account for 600 to 800 kg depending on car size and targeted reach.
Using Hybrid Designs Save About 40kg of Automotive Weight
Body components and especially closures have always been in the focus of lightweighting in automotive engineering, since they form some of the biggest parts of vehicles. Even if you reduce their thickness by just one tenth of a millimeter, you can save a lot of weight.
Focus on Component Rigidity and Performance in Automobile Crash Simulations
The principle of locally adding panel reinforcements to the side outer body panel, fender and doors is shown in Figure 5. At a wall thickness reduced by 0.2 mm in aluminum panels, overall weight savings amount to 4.6 kg per car. Special finite element analysis was also performed to establish and confirm the bendability strength of the door panels