Lightweight design of vehicle body- a contribution toward greener environment

The vehicle mass experienced a period of progressive increase. Nowadays as it is essential to decrease both the fuel consumption and the CO2 production, lightweight design becomes a relevant target for car manufacturer. One of the considered strategy toward lightweight is the substitution of the material used for manufacturing the different parts of the car body. Together with the new developed HSS steels, aluminium and magnesium are considerded. Recently composite material solutions have gained a lot of attention due to their very interesting characteristic. The paper discusses some the relevant aspects when developing a new material solution from the material production to the end-of-life. The paper includes one example of results that can be achieved with properly oriented light weight design procedure. Key words: lightweight design, car body, HS steel, light alloys, composite materials