Alumobility, in collaboration with Porsche, will present the results of a new joint study titled, “Aluminum Lightweight Study: A Conversion of the Porsche Taycan Top Hat from Mixed Material to an Aluminum Design,” according to a news release.
The presentation will be featured as part of the vehicle electrification program at Automotive Circle’s Car Body Xperience on April 23 at 11:45 a.m. in Rochester, Michigan.
Professor Mark White, Technical Director of Alumobility, and Jens Christlein, Director of Research and Development (R&D) Body in White at Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, DE, will present the scope of the study and its results. The discussion will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience.
The collaboration between Alumobility and Porsche involved a theoretical case study. The study focused on converting the existing steel-intensive mixed-material body structure, known as the Top Hat, of the Porsche Taycan to an all-aluminum Top Hat. This conversion would result in approximately a 40% weight saving compared to the steel reference parts, while also maintaining safety, body stiffness, and performance attributes. The project further demonstrated that aluminum-intensive vehicles offer manufacturing efficiency opportunities by reducing the number of parts, joint types, and total joint count. Additionally, it was determined that using recycled aluminum would lower lifetime emissions compared to the steel reference.
“For us at Porsche, it is greatly beneficial to receive state-of-the-art technical industry input regarding lightweight structures,” said Jens Christlein, Director of R&D Body in White at Porsche AG. “The collaboration with Alumobility and its entire team was very efficient and provided many interesting features which will help us to further optimize our cars towards benchmarking performance.”
“Our objective was to demonstrate that converting the Taycan Top Hat to all aluminum would deliver weight, CO2e, and complexity reduction without sacrificing performance, safety, or appearance, and we delivered on that target,” said Professor White.
The collaboration partners jointly checked and validated the results to demonstrate the feasibility of the study relative to the agreed targets.
“Working with a partner like Porsche is a great step for advancing Alumobility’s mission of conducting technical studies that showcase how aluminum is the material of choice for the future of mobility,” said Professor White. “Presenting the results of this comprehensive study to an international audience of automotive design and manufacturing engineers at the Car Body Xperience conference is an excellent opportunity for Alumobility to share industry knowledge with the automotive industry to help address the key challenges of reducing weight and emissions.”
The Car Body Xperience Conference, organized by Automotive Circle, will bring together industry experts from around the world to showcase the latest car body developments, performance, and production techniques.
Alumobility is a global association committed to advancing the adoption of aluminum in the automotive industry.
