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Automotive aluminum helps create a vehicle that is both big and safe, but lighter resulting in increased vehicle performance and fuel economy. Studies confirm that size, not weight is more important for automotive safety; meaning automotive aluminum can make a vehicle safer by making it larger (extending crush space for additional crash protection), while reducing weight (boosting gas mileage).

 Other important automotive safety advantages that aluminum provides include:

• Aluminum absorbs – pound for pound – two times the energy in a crash compared to steel.
• Replacing iron and steel with auto aluminum creates a weight savings of 45 to 50 percent while increasing vehicle performance and fuel economy without sacrificing automotive safety.
• Unlike steel, automotive aluminum can be used to maintain or even increase the size and strength of a vehicle’s critical front- and back-end crumple zones without increasing overall weight.
• Designed to fold predictably during a crash, auto aluminum allows the vehicle to absorb most of the crash forces.
• Automotive aluminum improves vehicle performance creating lighter vehicles with higher structural stiffness that allow the vehicle to accelerate more quickly while providing better stability and response than heavier vehicles.

High-Aluminum Content Vehicles with Superb Crash Test Ratings

Automotive safety at its best. Following are 2009 model year vehicles with more than 400 pounds of aluminum (or 10 percent of curb weight) and recipients of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) “Five-Star Safety Rating” for all categories (front – driver and passenger, side – front and back seats):

*Please note chart excludes vehicles not yet tested.

Aluminum structures can be designed to fold during a crash in a predictable manner, letting the vehicle – not its passengers – absorb more of the crash energy.