Vehicle Weight Reduction Obtained with Lightweight Materials

Abstract

The concept of specific gravity was employed in this paper as an indicator for measuring the progress achieved in reducing the weight of various forms of transportation. According to this indicator, the weight of Japanese passenger cars has been reduced by a value of 0.93 over the past 19 years. However, only a slight weight reduction has been achieved in the past six years despite improvements of vehicular structure through the extensive use of CAE. This indicates that the weight of vehicles constructed primarily of steel is approaching a natural limit, and that it will be necessary to switch from steel to lightweight materials to reduce substantially the weight of vehicles in the future.