AUTOMOTIVE

A
total of 89.5 million vehicles were produced in 2014, a 3% increase compared to
2013¹.On
average, 900 kg of steel is used per vehicle, totalling approximately 80
million tonnes of steel used by the automotive sector every year.

The
steel in a vehicle is distributed as follows:

● 34% is used in the body structure,
panels, doors and trunk closures for high-strength and energy absorption
in case of a crash

● 23% is in the drive train,
consisting of cast iron for the engine block and machinable carbon steel
for the wear resistant gears.

● 12% is in the suspension, using
rolled high-strength steel strip. The remainder is found in the wheels,
tyres, fuel tank, steering and breaking systems. ²

Advanced
High-Strength Steels (AHSS) are now used for nearly every new vehicle
design. Steel makes up more than 50% of today’s vehicles and using AHSS
makes lighter, optimised vehicle designs that enhance safety and improve
fuel efficiency.

● New grades of Advanced
High-Strength Steels enable carmakers to reduce vehicle weight by
25-39% compared to conventional steel. When applied to a typical
five-passenger family car, the overall weight of the vehicle is
reduced by 170 to 270 kg, which corresponds to a lifetime saving of 3
to 4.5 tonnes of greenhouse gases over the vehicle’s total life
cycle. This saving in emissions represents more than the total amount
of CO₂ emitted during the production of all the steel in
the vehicle.

● WorldAutoSteel, worldsteel’s
automotive group, completed a three-year programme in 2013
that delivers fully engineered, steel intensive designs for
electric vehicles. Known as the FutureSteelVehicle (FSV), the
project features steel body structure designs that reduce the mass of
the body-in-weight to 188 kg and reduce total life cycle greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions by almost 70%. The FSV study commenced in 2007 and
concentrates on solutions for cars that will be produced in
2015-2020. Today we are seeing the material portfolio developed
through the FSV programme progressively being introduced into new
products.

The
global transportation industry is a significant contributor to greenhouse
gas emissions and accounts for about 23% of all man-made CO₂ emissions³.
Regulators are addressing this challenge by setting progressive limits on
automotive emissions, fuel economy standards or a combination of
both. Many of the existing regulations began as metrics to reduce oil
consumption and focused on extending the number of kilometres/litre
(miles/gallon) a vehicle could travel. This approach has been extended
into the regulations which now limit GHG emissions from vehicles.

Extending
the fuel economy metric to meet objectives to reduce emissions is having
unintended consequences. Low-density alternative
materials are being used to reduce vehicle mass. These materials may
achieve lighter overall vehicle weights, with corresponding reductions in
fuel consumption and use phase emissions. However, the production of
these low-density materials is typically more energy and GHG intensive,
and emissions during vehicle production are likely to increase
significantly. These materials are often not able to be recycled and need
to be sent to landfill. Numerous life cycle assessment (LCA) studies show
how this can lead to higher emissions over the entire life cycle of the
vehicle as well as increased production costs. A case study is available.

A
key factor in understanding the real environmental impact of a material is its
LCA. An LCA of a product looks at resources, energy and emissions from the
raw material extraction phase to its end-of-life phase, including use,
recycling and disposal. worldsteel’s publication ‘Steel in the circular
economy: A life cycle perspective’ explains how applying a life cycle approach
is crucial to understanding the real environmental impact of a product.

Footnotes:

^1. International Organization of Motor Vehicle
Manufacturers, OICA.org.

^2. Allwood J.M., Cullen J.M., et al., 2012, Sustainable Materials: with
both eyes open, p. 31-38. UIT Cambridge, England.

^3. International Energy Agency, CO₂ Emissions from Fuel
Combustion Highlights, 2014 Edition, p 10