Alumobility, the global association committed to advancing the adoption of aluminum in the automotive industry, partnered with Porsche to complete a new joint study, entitled “Aluminum Lightweight Study: A Conversion of the Porsche Taycan Top Hat from Mixed Material to an Aluminum Design.”
“For us at Porsche it is a great benefit to get state-of-the-art technical industry input regarding lightweight structures,” said Jens Christlein, director R&D Body-in-White with Porsche AG. “The cooperation with Alumobility and its entire team was very efficient and provided many interesting features, which will help us to optimize our cars further toward benchmarking performance.”
The cooperation involved a theoretical case study focused on converting the existing steel-intensive, mixed-material body Top Hat structure of the Porsche Taycan to an all-aluminum Top Hat. This aluminum design conversion showed an approximate 40% weight savings against the steel reference parts, while also maintaining attributes for safety, body stiffness, and performance. The project further demonstrated that aluminum-intensive vehicles offer manufacturing efficiency opportunities by reducing the number of parts, joint types, and total joint count. In addition, it was determined recycled aluminum would lower lifetime emissions compared to the steel reference.
“Our objective was to demonstrate that converting the Taycan Top Hat to all aluminum would deliver weight, CO2 e, and complexity reduction without sacrificing performance, safety, or appearance, and we delivered on that target,” said Prof. Mark White, technical director at Alumobility. “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.”
The cooperation partners jointly checked and validated the results to demonstrate the feasibility of the study relative to the agreed targets. The full scope of the new study and its results will be presented by White and Christlein on April 23, 2024, at the Automotive Circle’s Car Body Xperience event in Rochester, MI.