Technology Roadmap: Materials and Manufacturing

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This report forecasts materials and manufacturing trends based on the CAR team’s research findings as well as input from subject matter experts. The results show that several factors can affect the industry’s progress on material technology in the coming decades, including fuel economy regulations, added weight due to batteries, ADAS, comfort features, increasing durability requirements for shared vehicles, and safety. CAR researchers found that vehicle lightweighting will remain a top priority for the industry as automakers strive to use the right materials for the correct application promoting mixed-material body structures.

With funding from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) has prepared this technology roadmap based on internal research and a thorough analysis of available industry reports. CAR researchers vetted the study conclusions with critical input from a group of subject matter experts. This white paper updates CAR’s previous Technology Roadmap (Smith, Spulber, Modi, & Fiorelli, 2017) published in 2017.