A Detroit automaker and US steel producer sparred at an industry gathering this week on whether steel or aluminum is the preferred metal for electric-vehicle bodies.
The top executive of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., the second largest US steelmaker, said that EV companies were preferring steel over aluminum. But an executive director from General Motors Co., the biggest US automaker, said there’s no broad brush.
“It’s hard to say we’re going to have more steel, we’re going to have more aluminum, because every application will be specific to that vehicle,” Thomas Hosea, who oversees GM’s global purchasing and supply chain, said Tuesday at a steel conference in Atlanta.
“If you have a vehicle with a bigger battery you’ll need to lightweight it more than a lower-range vehicle.” The debate on whether to use more steel or aluminum in automobiles took center stage a decade ago as automakers moved to lighten cars to meet new government requirements to extend how far vehicles must travel on a gallon of gas.