The signing ceremony for SAIC Motor Corporation Limited and Aluminum Corporation of China cooperating to develop auto lightweight is held in Shanghai, on Nov 29.

SAIC Motor Corporation Limited joined hands with Aluminum Corporation of China Limited (CHALCO) to develop auto lightweight by signing an agreement in Shanghai, on Nov 29, as an effort to save energy and reduce emission.

Auto lightweight is the systems engineering that aims to reduce the product weight by the integrated application of structure design, materials selection and manufacturing technologies, on the conditions of controlling cost and improving performance. As a major development trend of the automobile industry, auto lightweight is an efficient way in which to reduce energy consumption and improve vehicle’s performance of controllability, dynamics and security. It can also help new energy vehicles (NEVs) increase endurance mileage and economic performance.

Taking the trends of technology, market and industry as guidance, SAIC Motor put forward the development strategy focusing on electrification, interconnection, intelligence and sharing, aiming to promote transformation and upgrading. To achieve the goal of electrification, SAIC Motor will take more efforts to develop automobile lightweight technologies and apply them in practical ways, to improve its competitiveness in the NEV market.

According to the agreement, the two sides will cooperate to purchase raw materials, develop new vehicle models and manufacture aluminum parts by making good use of their advantages in technology, marketing and brand. A centralized procurement platform will also be set up through which SAIC Motor would purchase aluminum products and other primary products. CHALCO will provide support SAIC Motor in terms of providing aluminum materials and related data, application technology and computer-aid analysis to help it replace steel products with aluminum ones. They will jointly develop technologies to apply new aluminum materials to automobile parts. Their first industrialization project “l(fā)ightweight sliding door” is set to start soon.

Through long-term hard work, SAIC Motor has mastered the technologies for auto lightweight. Since it started the “l(fā)ightweight technology for new energy vehicle” project in 2008, SAIC Motor has continued to make achievements in the application of high-strength and super-strength steel sheets and thermal formed parts, as well as in car body structure optimization. Taking the fuel cell cars of its own brand as an example, 36 types of lightweight parts were applied to this vehicle model, which help reduce vehicle weight by 130 kilograms, accounting for 7 percent of the total weight.

SAIC Motor will carry out further innovation development strategies, provide new energy vehicles of advanced security performance for customers and build itself into a world renowned automobile enterprise.