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Car interiors are looking very stylish with many colours available, many textures and, of course, technologies.\u00a0 Even the exterior and structure of new cars utilise some pretty sensational materials that are lightweight, strong and malleable.\u00a0 So what are the main raw materials that make up the structure, style and flair that we love in our vehicles?<\/p>\n
Inside each new car are different materials that require a number of raw materials for their production. \u00a0Aluminium, glass, coking coal, and iron ore are used in the process of making steel.\u00a0 Kia and Mazda use very high-grade, high-strength steel in the production of their cars.\u00a0 Mazda even states that they use very thin and strong steel.\u00a0 There is a cost, though; the more high-grade, lightweight and high-strength the steel, the costlier it is to produce.\u00a0 High-strength steel alloys cost more to manufacture. \u00a0Not only is the high-grade alloy harder to create in its raw form; it is also harder to work with. \u00a0Stamping it and forming it becomes harder, and so more energy and stronger tools are needed to press, form and cut it.<\/p>\n
The automotive industry also relies on oil and petroleum products, not just for the gasoline and fuel to power the vehicles, but for the synthesis of plastics and in the production of other synthetic materials.\u00a0 Petroleum products are needed to make huge amounts of plastics, rubber and special fibres. \u00a0After the raw materials are extracted from the earth, they are transformed into products that automakers or auto parts companies use in the car assembly process.<\/p>\n
But wait; there is more \u2013 but only if you are into driving an electric vehicle (EV).\u00a0 An EV is made up of all the raw materials described above, as the only thing that\u2019s different about an EV from a vehicle that is powered by a combustion engine is that an EV uses a battery pack to get its power.\u00a0 In every EV battery, there\u2019s a complex chemistry of metals \u2013 cobalt, lithium, nickel and more.\u00a0 These are all raw materials that need to be mined from somewhere around the globe.\u00a0 Some researchers are expecting to see double-digit growth for batteries\u2019 special raw materials over the next decade, and this sort of growth will increase the pressure on the raw material supply chain for EVs.<\/p>\n
Hydrogen vehicles are powered by hydrogen. \u00a0The power plants of such vehicles convert the\u00a0chemical energy\u00a0of hydrogen into mechanical energy by either burning hydrogen in an\u00a0internal combustion engine, or by reacting hydrogen with oxygen in a\u00a0fuel cell\u00a0to power\u00a0electric motors.\u00a0 The fuel cell is more common.\u00a0 A hydrogen powered vehicle is made up of the same core raw materials as the contemporary combustion powered cars and the EVs; however, like the EV, the hydrogen vehicle gets it power from a different source (hydrogen).\u00a0 As of 2019, 98% of the hydrogen was produced by steam methane reforming, and this emits carbon dioxide. \u00a0Hydrogen can be produced by thermochemical or pyrolytic means using renewable feedstocks, but the processes are currently expensive.\u00a0 So, you can run a hydrogen vehicle with an internal combustion engine that uses hydrogen as the fuel.\u00a0 However, you can also run a hydrogen vehicle that uses a hydrogen fuel cell.\u00a0 The hydrogen fuel cell is more complex, relying on special raw materials (one raw material being platinum as a catalyst) to deliver the hydrogen for powering the vehicle.<\/p>\n
Biofuel is another fuel which can be used for powering combustion engine vehicles.\u00a0 Biofuel can be produced sustainably from renewable resources.\u00a0 The hitch with this one is ensuring there are large enough areas and methods dedicated to growing and producing biofuel for the masses.\u00a0 Biofuel is considered to be a fuel that is derived from biomass, which can be from plant or algae material or animal waste. Since such plant, algae or animal waste material can be replenished readily,\u00a0biofuel is\u00a0considered to be a source of renewable energy, unlike fossil\u00a0fuels\u00a0such as petroleum, coal, and natural gas and even EVs.<\/p>\n
Without a doubt, the automobile industry is one of the largest consumers of the world’s raw materials, and it\u2019s important we get informed as to just how green a heralded new technology is said to be.\u00a0 Science and sustainability need to continue to power our much needed vehicles about the globe and not fossil fuel giants, electric companies or blinded government bureaucrats.<\/p>\n
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Car interiors are looking very stylish with many colours available, many textures and, of course, technologies.\u00a0 Even the exterior and structure of new cars utilise some pretty sensational materials that are lightweight, strong and malleable.\u00a0 So what are the main raw materials that make up the structure, style and flair that we love in our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5120,86,4923,4471,59,6216,57,4014,3071],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-automotive-design","category-blog","category-electric-vehicles-evs","category-environment","category-fuel-2","category-hydrogen-vehicles","category-manufacturer-news","category-sustainabilitygreen","category-technical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13054,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13051\/revisions\/13054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}