Constellium is to lead a consortium of automotive manufacturers and suppliers to develop structural aluminium battery enclosures for electric vehicles.
The GBP15m (US$18.6m) ALIVE (Aluminium Intensive Vehicle Enclosures) project will be developed in the UK and funded in part by a grant from the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), as a component of its low carbon emissions research programme.
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“Constellium is delighted to partner with the APC, as well as automakers and suppliers in the UK to design, engineer and prototype a completely new structural aluminium battery enclosure,” said Constellium Automotive Structures & Industry business unit president, Paul Warton.
“Taking advantage of Constellium’s high-strength HSA6 extrusion alloys and new manufacturing concepts, we expect these battery enclosures to provide automakers with design freedom and modularity to optimise costs as they transition to vehicle electrification.”
The new battery enclosure manufacturing system will be designed to adapt to changing production volumes, providing scalability as volumes increase.
As a provider of both aluminium rolled and extruded solutions for the global automotive market, Constellium is able to design and produce battery enclosures which provide the strength, crash resistance and weight savings needed in a structural component. Its HSA6 alloys are 20% lighter than conventional alloys and are closed-loop recyclable.
Constellium will design and produce the aluminium extrusions for the project at its University Technology Centre (UTC) at Brunel University London. The UTC opened in 2016 as a dedicated centre of excellence for developing and testing aluminium extrusions and prototype components at scale.
A new application centre will be created in the UK for Constellium and its partners to provide full-scale prototypes to automakers and to refine production methods for advanced manufacturing.
The ALIVE project is scheduled to start in July and is expected to deliver its first prototypes at the end of 2021.
