By focusing on building structurally efficient vehicles, automakers can optimize their designs, use less material and improve fuel economy. One of the key elements is a mass target. The Ford Prodigy weighs in at 2,387 lbs. On a high-volume platform, the difference could mean millions. Instead, steel companies hope the automakers will spend the money on powertrain refinement.
Consumers consider safety to be a critical issue.
The steel consortium set its safety bar well into the future, calculating anticipated European and U.S. government regulations that will exist in 2004, and designing the vehicle to meet these criteria. The GM Precept designers admit that attention to the safety issue will come into play as the company moves towards a final vehicle that is production-ready in 2004. But designers hope that by using some of the most advanced steels and manufacturing techniques, they can offset the increase. While all OEMs require physical crash testing as their final benchmark, they still consider computational data reliable. This is a concept phase, so we need to use computer analysis.