Paving a road fi t for EVs

Times of great change amplify the need for communication and collaboration. The automotive industry is in the midst of a great transition to the next generation of propulsion systems. The demand for electric and sustainable vehicles is growing rapidly as consumers become more conscious of their effect on the environment.

One group working to meet these challenges head on is the Aluminum Transportation Group (ATG). The ATG aims to provide the greater automotive industry with credible research that quantifies the increasingly beneficial value aluminium offers in sustainability, performance and safety. The resources the ATG offers represent the aluminium industry’s unwavering commitment to helping automakers design the most advanced vehicles ever imagined. And the Roadmap for Automotive Aluminium is the detailed plan of action on how to drive innovation in the increasingly electrified automotive industry.

Mike Keown* spoke to Zahra Awan** on the latest from the ATG following their participation at the Greener Aluminium Online Summit which took place on the 24th May 2022.

The ATG is a committee or subsection of the Aluminum Association. It is made up of the major players in the aluminium industry. We aim to represent the entire value chain involved in the transportation industry; committee members include: Constellium, Novelis, Commonwealth, Hydro, Kaiser, Rio Tinto and Real Alloy

Currently 90% of the market is represented by secondary recycling, alloys and rolling, and we are working to grow our connections in the extrusion market.

The ATG has been around for decades, but the inspiration comes from listening to our automotive customers. They agreed that it would be better for them to work with us as a collective, as an industry.

Chuck Johnson, The Aluminum Association CEO recently said, “the greatest power an association has is to convene as an industry.” So, the Aluminum Transportation Group brings all of the members–who otherwise compete fiercely with each other in the marketplace–together and aligns them in pre-competitive work that unifies our industry to best serve our automotive customers with industry-level solutions.

The 2022 Auto Aluminium Roadmap is a unified blueprint that lays a foundation for the industry to grow and diversify within the automotive market.

It is the conduit through which communication between all automotive aluminium stakeholders can communicate to achieve the industry’s goal of delivering consumers the most efficient, safe and fun to drive vehicles ever made.

The Roadmap is a message to the industry saying, hey, we’ve heard you and here’s how we’re planning to work together moving forward.

With enthusiasm–this is something they asked of us, so we pursued it together. They were part of this project from the beginning. In March 2021 we gathered automakers, aluminium producers and other key stakeholders for a 3-day brainstorming session that formed the foundation for this Roadmap.

We set both short-and long-term goals to really help us drive the future of aluminium, focusing on technology to enable this future.

We will continue to work on the strategy because this is not just a publish once and done type of initiative. This is a living, breathing document that we will check and adjust along the way.

It will not become a stale document. It will forever be revisited and repurposed as a guide for all ATG activity.

The main challenge is how to help the environment and meet consumer demand through the application of automotive aluminium.

To address this challenge, collaboration between recyclers, OEMs and producers is key. The more we communicate, the better we can work together to address the needs of the environment and consumers.

In the ATG’s 2022 Roadmap for Automotive Aluminium, we discuss the future needs for recycling and sustainability in the automotive aluminium sector, and the principles and processes discussed here are applicable to all automotive aluminium. The goals outlined in the Roadmap for aluminium recycling and sustainability range from an improved, more efficient infrastructure for aluminium scrap recovery to increased utilization of scrap and the wide promotion of automotive aluminium as a sustainable solution across all manufacturing phases.

For example, developing the next generation of high-speed, alloy-selective, low-cost sorting technologies for shredded aluminium scrap is a priority as the aluminium industry looks ahead to prepare for an incoming wave of scrap. There is opportunity to work with automakers to improve vehicle end of life (EOL) recycling, decrease carbon emissions from wrought aluminium production, and align with competing materials on a common baseline for comparing carbon levels for material processing.

Next generation vehicles need next generation technology. Aluminium already offers significant advantages for BEVs, and the industry is working with its partners to develop the next generation of alloys to meet the needs of automakers and ultimately consumers. So, in the Roadmap we outline three main goals for future vehicles: 1. Reduce Overall Part and Sub-system Costs: Develop cost-effective aluminium solutions to meet all structural and safety requirements of battery enclosures. 2. Create Alloys Specifically for Electric Vehicle Batteries: Balance customer design requirements for stable dimensions/tolerances with material properties and cost of processing. 3. Tailor Designs for Battery Enclosures: Improve alloys and processes to enhance battery component functionality and flexibility.

Our automaker customers are very innovative. Some automakers are implementing aluminium die casting processes to remove and reduce large amounts of components in vehicles. And beyond technology, we look at cost—batteries are expensive and heavy. We wanted a clear picture of how lightweighting with aluminium fit into the BEV picture, so we teamed up with FEV consulting to conduct a study. And the four major takeaways we learned from the study are: 1. The aluminium content of today’s battery electric vehicles is greater than their internal combustion engine powertrain counterparts of similar size and mission. 2. The aluminium content of today’s battery electric vehicles increases with increasing vehicle size and performance expectations. 3. Despite expected improvements in battery cost and storage density, aluminium lightweighting solutions are expected to remain economically attractive for at least the next decade. 4. Lightweighting battery electric vehicles with aluminium provides additional economic benefits when the entire sales fleet is considered, creating additional economic benefits and further increasing the economic viability of aluminium lightweighting.

This is the first tangible piece of research in the Future Vehicles theme area of the Roadmap, and we look forward to continuing this research in future iterations.

I think for us the end goal is to continue to stay close to our automaker customers but also to the consumer and address what they want and what they need. We will look at this, not only from a technological/innovative perspective, but also from an environmental perspective. And we achieve these goals by continuing to invest in different initiatives.

The aluminium industry has invested or committed $6.5 billion in U.S. manufacturing since 2013, with nearly $3.5 billion in domestic aluminium manufacturing announced in last 12 months. And part of that $3.5 billion is one of our members, Novelis, and the recent announcement to invest $2.5 billion in a low-carbon aluminium recycling and rolling plant.

The road to modern mobility is paved with aluminium. And ATG is here to support you. We believe that aluminium builds a better, more sustainable and safer vehicle.

As I said before, next generation vehicles need next generation alloys that are light, yet strong to help extend EV range and/or reduce battery costs since less energy is needed to move lighter vehicles. And that’s why aluminium growth is projected to continue accelerating. A third-party survey of automakers by Ducker projects 570 pounds in total aluminium content per vehicle by 2030, a 12% increase from 2020. And the BEV study conducted by FEV North America affirms this projection showcasing aluminium’s important role in the transition to electrification.

We conduct this survey every few years to ensure that we have a clear picture of aluminium content in the market and are already underway with Ducker on the next survey of automakers. We can’t try to boil the ocean because when you try to boil the ocean, you end up getting nothing done. We developed a Roadmap that has realistically achievable objectives for the next 5 to 10 years, with a focus on what we have control of, that we can really advance the ball down the field. That is really the backbone of our Roadmap. I love that we can wrap our arms around it and use it as a conversation starter with industry stakeholders. It’s the foundation for the future of automotive aluminium.

• Homogenizing • Solution Heat Treatment T5/T6 • Ageing • Brazing (CAB & Vacuum) • Powder Coating …...and many more

Passes through furnace with the product. • Complete product temperature profile • Measurement at up to 20 points • Live 2 way radio communication option

No Trailing thermocouples so quick, safe, system installation without production delays.

Fully compliant AMS2750 or CQI-9 TUS reports with only a single Click!

Get the aluminium industry’s most informative read, direct

to your inbox or letterbox. Subscriptions include six issues a year, the annual directory, two additional digital supplements and much more!

PhoenixTM Ltd UK

PhoenixTM GmbH Germany

PhoenixTM LLC USA

ALUMINIUMTODAY.COM/SUBSCRIPTIONS