Automakers switch to cheaper aluminium to reap weight and cost benefits

The automotive sector being driven largely by innovation is steadily moving away from copper toward lightweight aluminium to help the industry cut vehicle weight. This has become imperative since they need to meet stricter emission standards.

Having already switched to aluminium radiators from copper, it had been cautious of expanding the use to wiring, partly because aluminium is more susceptible to corrosion. But Japan's Furukawa Automotive Systems, a unit of Furukawa Electric Co, has developed new corrosion-proof terminals for aluminium wires in a harness, the backbone of a car's electrical system, a spokesman said.

Furukawa has been supplying aluminium wire harness systems to Honda's light vehicles and Toyota's luxury vehicles.

"We expect aluminium wire harnesses for use in vehicles will grow and make up about 30 per cent of the market in Japan by 2025, compared to only a few per cent now," he said.

A spokesman for Toyota Motor Corp, the world's biggest selling carmaker, confirmed the use of aluminium harnesses in its Land Cruiser.

Germany's Leoni started supplying aluminium cables for luxury cars about five years ago, and is now expecting to expand to mass-market vehicles, spokesman Sven Schmidt said.

A car can be about one kilogram lighter if aluminium cables are used instead of copper and this difference is expected to climb to 4kg within five years, he said.