Shear English - The race is on to become the 'biggest loser' in the car industry, with brands looking to shed hundreds of kilograms from their cars in a quest for improved fuel efficiency. The shift towards lightweight materials, such as carbon fibre and aluminium, is partly being driven by the development of electric vehicles. Companies have to offset the fitment of big, heavy battery packs that can add more than 300 kilograms to the weight of a car.
Earlier this week, Ford announced it would use special plastic panels infused with tiny bubbles in its vehicle's interiors. The company is looking to shed between 100 kilograms and 300 kilograms from each car and hopes to have the special material in every car in its range by 2020.
Closer to home, Holden is expected to begin using aluminium panels on the boot and bonnet of future versions of the Commodore. And last month, BMW revealed a range of new electric vehicles that will rely on extensive aluminium and carbon-fibre panels to offset the weight of their battery packs.
Rival Mercedes-Benz says mainstream passenger cars will be clad in aluminium and race-car-like composite skins within a few years. The head of Mercedes-Benz's hydrogen fuel-cell program, Herbert Kohler, says alternative-fuel vehicles will necessitate the use of materials usually reserved for high-end sports cars.The hydrogen system in Mercedes' F-Cell vehicle adds about 300 kilograms to the car's weight. Kohler admits the F-Cell concept will need to go on a radical weight-loss program before becoming more acceptable.
'We don't want to do anything wild [with the fuel cell] but we do want to work on improving our system to reduce weight,' he says.
BMW's recently unveiled i3 and i8 electric and hybrid vehicles have an aluminium chassis and the cabin is made of high-strength but extremely lightweight carbon fibre-reinforced plastic. BMW claims this cancels most of the weight added by the batteries.
Weight reduction is crucial for electric vehicles because they have a much shorter range than conventional vehicles.
Ford chief designer for Asia Pacific and Africa, Todd Willing, says the brand has several development programs involving advanced materials. 'Weight [loss] is certainly … something that we're chasing but again it's about getting the balance right [with cost],' he says.
He says mainstream manufacturers always have to balance the weight-savings benefits with the extra cost of using more exotic materials. 'There's a lot of work on composites coming as well because that's getting cheaper and cheaper to produce.'
He says sheet moulding compounds, which are used on sports cars, can save weight without blowing the budget. 'It's not as specialised as you might think. Getting weight out is key to the performance and efficiency of the car.'
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