Author: EUCAR June 23, 2017 Share this:

Six of the European carmakers (Daimler, Volkswagen Group, Toyota Motor Europe, FCA-CRF, Volvo Group, Opel Group), supported by EUCAR, have joined forces to commonly address the high cost issue of innovations in vehicle lightweighting, having identified it as the major bottleneck towards their implementation in vehicle series and mass production.

The ALLIANCE project (AffordabLe LIghtweight Automobiles AlliaNCE) aims to develop novel advanced materials (steel, aluminium, hybrid) and production technologies, aiming at an average 25 % weight reduction over 100k units/year, at costs of < 3 €/kg. Additionally, our members will develop a mass optimiser software tool and a multi-parameter design optimisation methodology and process, aiming at an accelerated pre-assessment of technologies over existing designs in a holistic framework. ALLIANCE will work on eight different demonstrators of real vehicle models, six of which will be physically tested, aiming at market application by OEMs within 6 years from project end (in 2025). ALLIANCE has the ambition to become a central hub for innovation in lightweight design in Europe.

The project started in October 2016 and the achievements so far are interesting. The first steps towards establishing an open inclusive framework for external centres and clusters in this field, involving them in ALLIANCE development through an open lightweight design contest and dedicated workshops have been taken.

Additionally, you will find more information on the recently updated project’s website.

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