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Blog > Electric vehicles need Advanced High-Strength Steel
Author: Jeff (Junfei) Wu
In theory, electric vehicles could reduce noise and air pollution, improving our environment on a global scale by cutting greenhouse gas emissions. But much of the progress in the field to date has been about concept vehicles - which, despite high profile success in the media, hype among celebrities and substantial government funding, seem to be struggling with mass-production.
The main impeding factor here is battery technology. There has been no dramatic achievement in respect of battery performance and weight reduction. Take portable electronic gadgets like laptops, mobiles and cameras. In the past 30 years, the performance of these electronics has increased by almost 100 times, but battery technology has only managed to register an increase of about six-fold in a century.
Most mid-sized cars can travel over 350 miles in mixed driving conditions and can readily maintain a speed of 70mp/h. For an electric vehicle to achieve that, its batteries would weigh over 1.5 tonnes and would be similar in size to the vehicle itself. It is perhaps not surprising that electric vehicles will remain heavy for the foreseeable future.
In this scenario, electric vehicles have to use more advanced materials to drastically reduce weight, though not at the expense of safety. In these cases, Advanced High-Strength Steel could be a feasible choice. Most Advanced High-Strength Steel sheets achieve about 30% of weight reduction. Meanwhile the cost is almost 30% lower than that of aluminium-bodied vehicles.
Electric vehicles can certainly learn from high end internal combustion cars. Much of the body of the Audi Q5 is made of Advanced High-Strength Steel components. The new Mercedes C-Class includes 70% High-Strength Steel alloys in its body structure. According to both Audi and Mercedes, the materials provide maximum strength for minimum weight and ensure the greatest possible safety.
I would like to see the media spotlight turned more on bottlenecks in electric vehicles, to assess whether the current hypes should be replaced by more realistic approaches, and if so, to highlight case studies - including applications of Advanced High-Strength Steel - for doing so.
5th Nov 10
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