Emerging Trends in Automotive Lightweighting through Novel Composite Materials

Owing to unprecedented climate change issues in recent times, global automotive industry is striving hard in developing novel functional materials to improve vehicle’s fuel efficiency. It is believed that more than a quarter of all combined greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are associated with road transport vehicles. All these facts in association with heightened consumer awareness and energy security issues have led to automotive lightweighting as a major research theme across the globe. Almost all North American and European original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) related to automotive industry have chalked out ambitious weight reduction plans in response to stricter environmental regulations. This review entails main motives and current legislation which has prompted major OEMs to have drastic measures in bringing down vehicle weight to suggested limits. Also discussed are recent advances in developing advanced composites, and cellulose-enabled light weight automotive composites with special focus on research efforts of Center for Biocomposites and Biomaterials Processing (CBBP), University of Toronto, Canada.