Materials | Center for Automotive Research

Economic Contribution of the U.S. Automotive Industry

Carolyn Mozheev — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 19:29:44 +0000

Economic Contribution of the U.S. Automotive Industry

An Economic Contribution Analysis of Automobile and Light Duty Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts Manufacturing in the United States

Although it is well established that the automotive industry contributes significantly to the US economy and employs millions of people, the industry’s expanding presence nationwide highlights its ongoing evolution. In this research note, CAR examines the economic contributions of the automobile and light duty motor vehicle manufacturing and parts manufacturing industries in the US.

Results from this analysis outline the effects of industry on employment, labor income, value added, output, and tax revenue. Complementing the data observed in the CAR Book of Deals that demonstrate how capital investments are expanding across the US, this analysis reveals the regional and interconnected effects of trade and commuting. These results provide a unique snapshot of the automotive industry collaboration across regions of the US.

Affordability: The Twenty-Five Thousand Dollar Electric Vehicle

Carolyn Mozheev — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 16:45:05 +0000

Affordability: The Twenty-Five Thousand Dollar Electric Vehicle

White Paper

A topic on the minds of consumers and automotive industry members alike relates to vehicle affordability. CAR explores this issue in detail in a series of round table discussions with experts and industry stakeholders with a focus on supply, demand, and policy dynamics at play to affect affordability.

In this whitepaper, CAR outlines the drivers of increasing production costs, determining how to reach economies of scale via supply, and analyzing whether a $25000 vehicle is, in fact, affordable for consumers to bolster demand. Finally, CAR examines how policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions impact vehicle manufacturing and sales. This article is a timely and useful primer on the evolving factors affecting the automotive industry.

Vehicle Mass Reduction Roadmap Study 2025-2035

swhitehouse@cargroup.org — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 12:36:23 +0000

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Committee on Assessment of Technologies for Improving Fuel Economy of Light-Duty Vehicles, Phase 3 was tasked by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) with providing estimates of the potential cost, fuel economy improvements, and barriers to deployment of technologies for improving fuel economy in 2025-2035 light-duty vehicles. The National Academies Committee was investigating the state of vehicle mass reduction technology readiness and the impact of mass reduction on fuel economy while maintaining vehicle performance and safety requirements.

The Center for Automotive Research (CAR) was commissioned by NASEM to study vehicle mass reduction for model years 2025-2035. Over the past decade, CAR has been a leader in light-duty vehicle mass reduction research. CAR has done work on assessing the real-world barriers to implementing mass reduction technologies (J. Baron, 2016). CAR also worked with nine global vehicle manufacturers to examine material trends over the next decade (Baron & Modi, 2016). The project still stands as one of the most cooperative and thorough analyses done to date. CAR collected data on 42 vehicles from 4 segments representing 50 percent of the U.S. light-duty fleet. Most recently, CAR has published a Materials and Manufacturing Technology Roadmap (Modi & Vadhavkar),

Roof Lightweighting Study

swhitehouse@cargroup.org — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 17:50:47 +0000

Vehicle mass reduction or “lightweighting” has been deemed very important by automakers because of many benefits including performance and fuel economy. The arrival of automated, connected, electrified, and shared (ACES) technology will make lightweighting more important in the future because of added weight and range anxiety in battery electric vehicles (BEVs).

The CALM group selected the vehicle roof structure for a co-development lightweighting study because it provides an opportunity for mixed-material application. The baseline vehicle for this research is the 2011 Honda Accord which has a mild steel roof structure. The design space contains twelve parts including the roof panel, roof bows, roof rails, and the headers.

Lightweighting ideas submitted by various CALM members were tested on various qualitative and quantitative parameters such as manufacturing readiness, joining feasibility, reparability, ability of computer simulation, etc. The project team selected four concepts after filtering through various combinations of the lightweighting ideas. All four concepts were studied by computer aided engineering methods including finite element analysis and design of experiments. The performance of the lightweight concepts were compared to the baseline.

Evaluating Innovative Dissimilar Material Joining Technologies

swhitehouse@cargroup.org — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 13:49:55 +0000

Due to the need to reduce overall vehicle mass, vehicle manufacturers are turning to a multi-material approach to vehicle construction more extensively than has been historically the case. However, because of the differences in the chemical and physical properties of these materials, joining is not as straightforward as, say, welding steel to steel.

This study, performed under the auspices of LIFT (https://lift.technology) and the U.S. Office of Naval Research ( https://www.onr.navy.mil), looks at how various materials can be effectively joined as well as at various processes to perform the joining.

Technology Roadmap: Materials and Manufacturing

swhitehouse@cargroup.org — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 13:11:43 +0000

This report forecasts materials and manufacturing trends based on the CAR team’s research findings as well as input from subject matter experts. The results show that several factors can affect the industry’s progress on material technology in the coming decades, including fuel economy regulations, added weight due to batteries, ADAS, comfort features, increasing durability requirements for shared vehicles, and safety. CAR researchers found that vehicle lightweighting will remain a top priority for the industry as automakers strive to use the right materials for the correct application promoting mixed-material body structures.

With funding from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) has prepared this technology roadmap based on internal research and a thorough analysis of available industry reports. CAR researchers vetted the study conclusions with critical input from a group of subject matter experts. This white paper updates CAR’s previous Technology Roadmap (Smith, Spulber, Modi, & Fiorelli, 2017) published in 2017.

Impact of Automated, Connected, Electric, and Shared (ACES) Vehicles on Design, Materials, Manufacturing, and Business Models

swhitehouse@cargroup.org — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 13:58:00 +0000

The automotive industry is going through an unprecedented change with advancements in innovative technologies and changing consumer preferences. In the future, it is likely that city transportation will be dominated by automated, connected, electric, and shared (ACES) vehicles. The Center for Automotive Research (CAR) took an initiative to research the impacts of ACES vehicles on design, materials, manufacturing, and business models. CAR researchers interviewed multiple experts at vehicle manufacturers, tier-1 suppliers, and new mobility companies. CAR also organized a workshop on this topic. This paper is a consolidation of expert opinions collected during the interviews and the workshop.

Technology Roadmaps: Intelligent Mobility Technology; Materials and Manufacturing Processes; and Light Duty Vehicle Propulsion

swhitehouse@cargroup.org — Mon, 19 Jun 2017 06:30:15 +0000

Major technological advances to both products and manufacturing processes are accelerating innovation throughout the automotive industry. To capture the scope of these technologies, CAR has developed a technology roadmap for the automotive sector to provide a broad understanding of technology trends throughout the industry from current year to beyond 2030.
CAR identified and reviewed over a hundred existing roadmaps published by consulting firms, independent think tanks, trade journals, and CAR’s own research. CAR also conducted literature searches and reviewed announcements at key industry events to identify any emerging technology trends not covered in existing roadmaps. Based on the information gathered, CAR synthesized the research and existing roadmaps into three groups: Intelligent Mobility Technology; Materials and Manufacturing Processes; and Light Duty Vehicle Propulsion. Once these synthesized technology roadmaps were developed, CAR convened a roundtable of 25 experts from each of the technology groups to validate the findings.
This whitepaper synthesizes the results of this technology roadmap project, adding further interpretation of the challenges and concerns related to the projected technology and manufacturing trends. The paper is organized into three distinct categories:

Intelligent Mobility Technology
Materials and Manufacturing Processes
Light Duty Vehicle Propulsion

Mixed Material Joining – Advancements and Challenges

swhitehouse@cargroup.org — Mon, 22 May 2017 12:49:31 +0000

The global emphasis on reducing carbon emission is pushing automakers to improve the fuel economy of their vehicle fleet. Vehicle performance (acceleration, road noise, vibrations, steering response, et cetera) and comfort features which also need to be improved every model year to meet customer expectations. Vehicle weight reduction, also called lightweighting, is being strategically pursued by automakers around the world to meet regulatory and market goals. New generations of automobiles are expected to contain increasingly larger quantities and diversity of innovative component designs, incorporating materials such as high-strength steels, aluminum, plastics, polymer composites, and magnesium. The use of these advanced materials creates the need to develop robust and cost-effective joining solutions for mixed-material parts and assemblies. Joining is a critical enabler to mixed material vehicles and represents different challenges relative to those with joining of monolithic materials – examples include; cost-effectiveness, thermal expansion, corrosion, durability, and process compatibility. This whitepaper investigates some of the popular methods for mixed material joining and identifies gaps, challenges, and opportunities in their implementation for a mass-produced vehicle. The content of this whitepaper is the result of the information the CAR team collected through an extensive literature survey and by interviewing more than 20 joining experts at several vehicle manufacturers and high volume suppliers.

New Materials/New Skills for Automotive Skilled Trades

swhitehouse@cargroup.org — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 15:39:50 +0000

CAR has completed research on the impact of new materials on skilled trades training and apprenticeship needs. Designing, analyzing, and building automotive tools, dies, molds, jigs, and fixtures to form the wide array of new and advanced materials being deployed in current and future vehicles are changing skill needs not only for incumbent workers, but also for the future workforce. CAR’s research included cataloging the major skills needed by the automotive industry, identifying skills gaps, and assessing how smaller companies and suppliers can work to address these gaps either on their own, through industry consortia, and/or in conjunction with equipment vendors and educational partners.

This report focuses on the impact of automotive lightweighting solutions involving new designs with lightweight materials and advanced forming and joining processes on training received by current skilled trades workers and industrial maintenance associates, as well as curriculum development for apprenticeships.

This research was conducted with support of a grant from the Arconic Foundation and was first released at the CAR T3 Manufacturing Summit.