“The appropriate application of aluminium in the car body enables a weight reduction of 40% compared to a lightweight steel car body with the same technical performance” Heinrich Timm, Director Audi Lightweight Design Centre

Today, many cars contain significant amounts of aluminium, as designers have become increasingly aware of the metal’s demonstrated advantages. More than 20% of the cars produced in Europe have an aluminium hood, including high production volume small family cars such as the Peugeot 307. The Jaguar XJ is the first aluminium body-in-white (the car’s metal structure) in a sheet-based design to employ structural adhesive bonding as one of its joining methods. Several high-performance sports car bodies, such as Ferrari and Lotus, are also produced in aluminium.

In the last 50 years, additional aluminium content has been the result of replacing cast iron (engine blocks and transmission housings), mild steel (car bodies and wheels), and copper (radiators). While historically aluminium has been used in automobiles primarily in the form of castings, in recent years automotive engineers have increasingly applied the wide variety of aluminium product forms such as extrusions, stamped sheet parts and forgings in chassis and suspension, crash management and other structural applications.

Aluminium content in cars