lightweight materials

With the 2025 CAFE target set at 54.5 miles per gallon, the race to develop fuel-efficient vehicles is on. According to Frost & Sullivan, this race to 54.5 will necessitate a healthy dose of lightweight automotive components. Frost & Sullivan's latest report, "Prevalent Substitution ...

According to a study conducted by BCC Research, the global market value for lightweight materials used in the transportation industry will grow to nearly $125.3 billion in 2015, up from an estimated $95.5 billion in 2010. This growth, says BBC Research, will be driven by automakers focused on ...

In work recently published in the Journal of Applied Physics, a University of Technology Sydney (UTS) team led by professor Guoxiu Wang presented reproducible test results showing that graphene paper has the potential to revolutionize the automotive industry. How? Well, researchers at UTS have ...

After analyzing 26 individual components in compact vehicles, the University of Aachen and the European Aluminium Association concluded that using aluminum in some automotive parts (illustrated by the graphic above) could safely reduce vehicle body weight by up to 40 percent, resulting in 2.7 ...

Automakers are gearing up to tackle the upcoming stringent emissions standards head on. From designing more aerodynamic vehicles to producing engines that operate at a high degree of efficiency, automakers appear to have dedicated a ...

Audi makes some blazingly fast automobiles. If you need proof, spend some seat time in vehicles like the RS6 or the R8. They make it look like producing autos with plenty of kick is a piece of cake for Audi. Making that same ...

Generation after generation, our vehicles continue to add a little flab. How much? The additional poundage averages out to 20 percent gained per model in the last 20 years, making today's autos ...

Toray Industries, a leading producer of carbon fiber material, will begin supplying both Toyota and Fuji Heavy Industries (parent company of Subaru) with the lightweight product for use on upcoming vehicles. Toyota will reportedly use the carbon fiber to produce hoods and roofs for the Lexus LFA, ...

We've brought you stories before about the commitments by BMW and Mercedes to utilize carbon fiber as much as possible in future vehicles. We've also provided a study by Toyota which concludes that carbon fiber may not be as green ...

BMW and Mercedes are leading the way in using carbon fiber to reduce weight in future passenger vehicles. Losing pounds can also be key to meet upcoming CAFE regulations and can also help increase the range electric vehicles can travel. The shift towards carbon fiber will probably become more ...