Today, due to concerns about the emission of greenhouse gases and the Kyoto Protocol, there is increasing interest in the use of aluminium for reducing the weight of passenger cars to reduce fuel consumption and exhaust emissions, particularly CO2. In recent years, several aluminium structured cars have been developed and are in service in various parts of the world, all of which have met the relevant vehicle safety requirements. However, concern continues to be raised about the crashworthiness of light weight vehicles. This paper summarises data on the energy absorption of aluminium automotive materials and structures under impact collapse conditions as well as published information from the automotive industry on the crashworthiness of two aluminium intensive vehicles. The data and crash results demonstrate that aluminium structured vehicles can be designed to be crashworthy and to provide at least the same level of occupant protection as equivalent steel structured vehicles but at about half the vehicle structure weight.
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