Alcoa sees opportunity to add aluminum to U.S. cars

Aluminum makers see an automotive business opportunity in the push to cut carbon emissions, an Alcoa executive said this week. As U.S. automakers seek to make their vehicles lighter and more efficient, that opens the door for aluminum makers to add more of their metal to cars. Last year, aluminum surpassed iron as second most-used material in a vehicle, behind American autos from 80 lbs (36 kg) in 1973 to 327 lbs (147 kg) last year. In the same period, she said the study, conducted by auto industry research firm Ducker Worldwide, estimated that 12 percent or 480 lbs (216 kg) of every average vehicle will go through a mix change in order to meet the stricter emissions standards.

The near 500 lbs in question is currently composed of iron, mild steel, and other metals that will be in a race with aluminum, high-strength steel, magnesium, and plastics for a portion of the share. "We're going to see some very innovative and creative approaches in trying to capture that 480 lbs. That's huge. We did the math and that's 7,500 billion lbs, if you take just the vehicles built in North America," Riveros-Jacobson said.   The aluminum industry's biggest opportunity, she said, will be in working with automakers on both vehicle design and fabrication and assembly design.

"You can do some creative things in terms of design for fabrication and assembly that allow you to reduce parts overall in your system," she said. Some judicious engineering and assembly design using aluminum can take 40 to 50 percent of the weight out of a traditionally designed mild steel part. She told Reuters on the sidelines that Alcoa's own research and development team works closely with automakers' design teams to devise ways to use aluminum to meet their needs while lowering the weight in the car.

"If the aluminum industry continues to make progress in material technology, innovation and design for performance," the Alcoa president said, "some researchers estimate that it is technically possible for aluminum in automotive applications to be carbon-neutral by 2017."  By 2010, when fuel-economy restrictions on vehicles take effect in many countries like China, Japan and India, weight reduction in those countries' autos will also be necessary.

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