2014 North American International Auto Show Opening Remarks
Lawrence W. Kavanagh, President
Steel Market Development Institute
Good afternoon, everyone.
I’m Larry Kavanagh, president of the Steel Market Development Institute, or SMDI. SMDI is the market development business unit of the American Iron and Steel Institute andworks on bringing the latest technologies in steel to our customers in key markets like automotive. Our sevenSMDI member companies supplying the automotive industry are all represented here today, and I invite you to spend time with these experts.
We thank you for joining us this afternoon. Our mission today is to brief you on the future of steel in automotive applications. I would especially like to cover how current and emerging advanced high-strength steels will help automakers meet 54.5 miles per gallon by the year 2025.
I was asked this question the other day, “What does all this lightweighting mean for steel?” I hope all of you understand the vast majority of lightweighting is done with AHSS.
The SMDI business model is based on collaboration and pre-competitive development, and targets those challenges faced by all car companies. Our individual steel company members also provide specialized solutions based on individual steel company expertise.
The steel and automotive industries have a long history of collaboration and improving vehicle performance at the lowest possible weight and the lowest possible cost. It is why our customers look to steel first.
In May 2011, we introduced the international project FutureSteelVehicle. It included both new steel grades and manufacturing techniques. Now, just over two years later, many of these steels and manufacturing techniques are in vehicles on the road. This is remarkable as auto design cycles are normally four to five years. This means two things - the work must be of high value to be adopted so rapidly and the level of adoption, whileimpressive, allows more room for lightweighting with current steels.
It is only through this kind of close collaboration that we can drive the advancement of steel solutions for the next generations of fuel-efficient, safe, affordable and clean vehicles.
Weight reduction increases as AHSS in vehicle bodies increase, as shown in this figure. Here you can also see the benefit of advanced optimization design (3G design, for gage, grade and geometry optimization) versus simple materials substitution represented by 2G design in the figure. So steels available today can provide between 25 and 30 percent mass reduction to car companies right now.
Calculations used by NHTSA and EPA show that this level of mass reduction is sufficient for automakers to achieve 2025 fuel economy requirements without the increased use of alternative materials.
In the back of this room there is an auto suspension part, a front lower control arm. The steel and aluminum versions are equal in weight. The steel arm is in production vehicles today. As we methodically eliminate the lightweighting advantage of alternative materials, we increase both the costbenefits of our material and our life cycle emission advantages. Keep in mind that making alternative materials generates five to 10 times the emissions of steelmaking; this fact isn’t disputed. What’s disputed is how much of this emissions penalty from materials manufacturing can be made up by driving a lighter vehicle. What if the alternative materials vehicle wasn’t lighter? The life cycle advantages of steel are undisputed and the production cost equation is further tipped toward steel.
In addition to what we are doing now, our steel and automotive engineers are currently working on future solutions together with top universities and national laboratories to develop the next generation of steels that will continue the already established trend of makinglighter, stronger and more affordable vehicles in steel. Such research will ensure that OEMs will be able to meet the tough government regulations for fuel efficiency for light cars and trucks.
One way the steel industry is assisting car companies is by providing an expanding portfolio of new advanced-steel technologies,many of which are available right now, to be used for current and new car company product development programs. It is another reason our customers look to steel first.
Recently, we completed market research on steel in the automotive market to understand how consumers feel about steel in their vehicles, and I think you will find these results most interesting, and further proof to “choose steel first.” To review these findings and explain the impact of consumers and how they feel about what materials are used to make their vehicles, I’d like to introduce JoAnna Abrams of MindClick Global. JoAnna…