January 2007

Ready-to-Use News Articles

Light-weight Car Weighs in Heavy on Benefits

By: Douglas Cariou

Need to lose some weight? So does your car.

And researchers at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) believe magnesium will lighten the load.

A light-weight car means fuel savings for consumers and reduced carbon dioxide emissions for the planet. In fact, with every 10 percent of weight taken off a vehicle, fuel efficiency improves by five to eight percent.

Scientists at NRCan's CANMET Materials Technology Laboratory (CANMET-MTL) are working with the US Automotive Materials Partnership and the China Magnesium Center to study how magnesium can improve car design and efficiency.

The obvious environmental and economic benefits are what's fuelling the Magnesium Front End Research and Development project. Magnesium is the lightest of all engineering metals. The use of magnesium can reduce the weight of the front end of a vehicle by 60 percent or 40 kilograms.

 “Magnesium is 33-percent lighter than aluminium and 75-percent lighter than the steel used in conventional cars,” says Dr. Jennifer Jackman, the Director at CANMET-MTL and Canada's representative on the project's Steering Committee. “But even though it's lighter, a redesigned front end will ensure that, in the event of an impact, passenger safety is not compromised in an accident.”

“It has a high strength-to-weight ratio,” she adds, which means that while it's light, it can perform as well as steel. “It's also recyclable,” she says.

Normally, 55 percent of the car's weight is over the front axle and 45 percent over the rear axle. If you design the front end using the lighter magnesium, the weight evens out, which improves the drivability of the vehicle.

But how much of a dent will a car with a magnesium front end make in your wallet?

Dr. Kumar Sadayappan, a CANMET-MTL Research Scientist and the Canadian Leader of the project, has some good news.

“We're working toward developing a magnesium front-end structure that can be designed and manufactured at approximately the same cost as the current steel structure,” he says.

This is great for consumers. And, since Canada is already the world's leading supplier of magnesium parts for automobiles, an increased demand for magnesium for automotive applications will also help Canadian companies remain competitive globally.

Among the Canadian companies involved in this five-year, US$22-million project are Magna International Inc., Meridian Technologies Inc. and Trimag Inc. The universities of Sherbrooke, McGill, Concordia, Ryerson, Waterloo, McMaster, Windsor and British Columbia, and American and Chinese institutions will also take part.

Through international partnerships and global dialogue, NRCan is once again playing an important role in encouraging the development of innovative technologies that can meet the economic and environmental demands for today and in the future.