A new study just in from research firm Ducker Worldwide predicts that 7 out of 10 pickup trucks will have aluminum bodies by 2025. Those results should please the entity that commissioned the study, the Aluminum Transportation Group, a trade organization that promotes the use of aluminum.
Carmakers are using more aluminium which is lighter than steel–to improve fuel efficiency in the face of stricter global emissions standards, and the report claims this trend will continue in both pickup trucks and passenger cars. Ducker estimates that 85 percent of vehicle hoods will be aluminum by 2025, up from 1 in 3 in 2012. So will almost half of vehicle doors, compared to around 6 percent in 2012, and one in three roof panels, increasing from 4 percent in 2012. That would increase the average aluminum content in a new car from 350 pounds in 2013 to around 550 pounds in 2025.
However, some obstacles must still be overcome before any of that can happen. So far, only low-volume luxury cars the Audi A8, Jaguar XJ, Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, and Tesla Model S have featured aluminium panels, so it’s still something of an unknown quantity when it will move down the scale to mass-produced vehicles.
There are issues on the cost of aluminium; its durability and ease of accident repair which have made selling the 2015 Ford 150 almost as challenging for Ford as building it. The company is making efforts to educate customers and technicians, and it put the new F-150 through a tougher testing regimen than any of its predecessors.
The main advantage of an aluminum-bodied pickup truck is the better fuel consumption due to the lower weight and so we wait for the F-150’s mpg ratings which will be released until to its launch later this year.
