Global Market Review of Vehicle Body Material Trends

Forecast the market uptake of advanced automotive body panel materials and establish the latest trends in this sector to help save weight and improve fuel efficiency, with this brand new report from just-auto...

This first-edition report reviews the key market drivers for vehicle panels. The motives behind most advances in process or product technology in exterior trim and body components are to improve the car's overall appearance, save weight, improve fuel efficiency, simplify installation and above all reduce cost.

Following Chapter 1's introduction, Chapter 2 (Body structure and materials) examines trends in the vehicle's body panels and the use of certain materials. There are basically four materials used in a vehicle body: steel, aluminium, plastics and carbon fibre/composites. This report therefore examines the use of each material in turn, reviewing some recent technical advances. It includes exclusive and extensive interviews with Corus, Stadco, JSP and 3M.

Extracts:

just-auto: Are you seeing more use of high tensile steels? Consequently, could we see more vehicles coming which are lighter but use only steel?

Corus: The trend in the increased use of higher strength steels such as 600 and 800MPa material and ultra-high strength steels such as boron steel is clear, as are the weight-saving benefits. The challenge for industry is for better collaboration of OEMs and their supply chain to exploit these materials. We will certainly see lighter all-steel vehicles ??