Aluminum’s Solid Future in ‘Green’ Cars

At the Automotive News Green Car Conference, aluminum was deemed a cost-effective solution to future automotive development, especially in key areas such as fuel economy, reduced emissions, high recyclability and improved safety.

Dr. Rick Winter, director of development, Alcoa Technology Center, said North American automotive aluminum content has more than tripled in the last three decades because of its “environmental, safety and driving performance” advantages.

“Since 1990, increased use of aluminum in the world’s vehicles has avoided burning 84 billion liters of gasoline and more than one billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions,” said Winter. “In fact, it is projected that the growing use of aluminum in the transportation market will help make the aluminum industry greenhouse gas neutral by 2025.”

Recycling scrap aluminum requires only five percent of the energy required to make new aluminum from virgin materials. Because of its significantly lighter weight, each pound of aluminum that replaces two pounds of iron or steel in a car can save a net 20 pounds of CO₂ emissions over the vehicle’s lifetime – even allowing for the CO₂ generated by the by the initial production of aluminum.

Alcoa has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 33 percent since 1990. The company is also a founding member of the United States Climate Action Partnership and the Global Roundtable on Climate Change.