China dominates the international market for electric vehicles, becoming the world’s largest electric vehicle market in 2016 by providing subsidies of about 30 billion yuan to electric vehicle manufacturers and buyers. Since 2018, the Chinese government has gradually scaled back such support, shifting the financial burden to automakers through sales quotas and promoting research and development of new energy vehicles. In 2016, China accounted for 25 percent of global electric vehicle sales, higher than the United States; the United States had 564,000 electric cars, more than 80,000 fewer than China; and China’s electric vehicle license plates accounted for 1.37 percent of the total number plates issued for small cars, in the US, the figure was just 0.91 per cent. China’s electric vehicle development momentum is strong, the speed of penetration has been in a leading position in the world. A draft regulation issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2016 would require Chinese automakers to shift 8 percent of their production capacity to electric and hybrid vehicles by 2018, in order to better and faster achieve energy saving and emission reduction targets, it should rise to 10 per cent in 2019 and 18 per cent in 2020.

China’s auto manufacturers sail into the world, China’s Geely Automobile Company wants to soar in the world. “Geely’s dream is to be a global company,”Chairman Li Shufu told Bloomberg News in 2018. “To do that, we have to go abroad.” Three other Chinese car companies are doing the same: SF Motors, Ulai Motors and Batten Motors. Over the past two or three years, China has gone from being a small player in the global electric car market to being the largest market with half of global sales in 2017. China’s sales of electric and hybrid vehicles rose 154 percent to 143,000 units in the first quarter of 2018 from a year earlier, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Many of China’s new-energy car brands are entering the European market, including start-ups and some established carmakers that are competing with foreign cars for innovative technology and design. The core of electric cars is the battery, and the future of batteries in China is a good prerequisite for the development of Chinese automakers, said German auto economist F Dudenhoff. At present, the quality of Chinese car companies and European brands in product quality, can stand on the same platform. And China’s auto talent is better prepared for the future. “The Chinese are the world leaders in software solutions, and in the future, the Chinese will become more and more important,”Dudenhof said

China is leading the global electric bus revolution, with about 385,000 electric buses on the road in April 2018,99 percent of them in China, where one in five buses has already phased out internal combustion engines, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance Europe’s electric revolution has stalled, and London plans to turn its buses electric, but by June 2018, only four bus lines had switched to electric vehicles; New York City in the United States is taking even slower, smaller steps, the target date for emissions free buses is 2040; Germany is even worse, with only 458 of the 78,345 buses allowed on the road in 2016 being fully or partially electric. China is speeding into the future, and Shenzhen announced in 2017 that it had completed the electrification of its buses, all of which are purely electric, with 16,359 of them. Electric buses already cost less per mile than diesel vehicles in some of China’s biggest cities, according to a report by Bloomberg new energy finance. Electric buses could reduce global oil demand by about 420,000 barrels a day by 2030. That’s a small amount in terms of global demand, but analysts at Bloomberg new energy say that by 2030, China will contribute 90 percent of the world’s oil savings, and the Chinese government has found a way to reduce its dependence on oil.

China’s 13th FIVE-YEAR PLAN has set a goal of 5 million electric vehicles by 2020, and its electric vehicle industry has developed well since then. On a more positive note, this ambitious plan has been exceeded. And China is accelerating its tilt toward electric cars in order to become a car powerhouse. In 2017, China published its “Medium-and Long-term development plan for the automotive industry”, which sets out the goal of having a strong international competitive advantage in some key technical areas by 2020, it has also set itself the goal of creating a number of world-renowned car brands by 2020. In the future, Chinese automakers will compete with Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes Benz.

No aluminum which has all-aluminum electric vehicles, aluminum is the manufacture of electric vehicles, coupe and other products cost-effective top-grade structural materials. There are several advantages to making automobile parts out of aluminum alloys. First of all, weight loss is great. If a typical steel part is replaced by aluminum alloy, the weight can be reduced by 30%-50% , and the automobile weight can be reduced by 10% , 7%-8.5% , a 40t heavy truck can be reduced by 3T, and the fuel consumption can be reduced by 2.4 l/100km. Second, it could cut greenhouse gas emissions dramatically. As the quality of cars declines, so does the amount of fuel used, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Foreign data show that every car using 1 kg of aluminum, in the life cycle of greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by 20 kg. Third, strong recycling. After the car scrapped, most of the aluminum alloy parts, such as panels, battery box, the engine of aluminum, transmission shaft and so on can be almost all recovered after breaking. The loss of aluminum in automobile scrap smelting is only about 3.5% , plus 1.5% of mechanical loss, the loss of aluminum in automobile scrap recycling process is less than 5% , which is less than that of any other commonly used structural materials. Fourth, the energy-saving effect is remarkable.

If steel plate is used to make truck fuel tank, the quality of fuel tank can reach 57kg, while that of aluminum plate truck fuel tank is only 19.3 kg, reducing 60% . The original weight of the brake gas tank is 35kg, but the aluminum plate is used. The weight of the gas tank is only 14kg, reducing 40% . The simulation analysis of a new energy vehicle model by Beijing Working Department of China Automobile Center shows that for every 100kg reduction in vehicle quality, the 100km power consumption can be reduced by 5.5% and the range can be increased by 5.5% without braking energy recovery. Therefore, lightweight is one of the important measures to improve the mileage of new energy vehicles. It could also reduce the cost of power batteries for new-energy vehicles. The simulation of a new energy vehicle (EV) model by Beijing Working Department of China Automobile Center shows that for every 100kg reduction in vehicle quality, the battery power will decrease by 1.1 kWh, and the cost will decrease by 1,650 yuan/kWh. Therefore, for electric vehicles, the application of lightweight technology can reduce the cost of loading power batteries while maintaining the same mileage. There are three ways to reduce weight, which are optimizing structure design, reducing parts quantity, adopting lightweight material, that is, low density or high strength material, adopting efficient and reliable forming technology, joining technology and surface treatment technology.

The new energy vehicle should be all-aluminum. The so-called all-aluminum new energy vehicle means that under the current technical conditions, under the premise of ensuring that all technical performances meet the requirements of the standards and that the vehicle is safe and comfortable to ride, use aluminum alloys and other lightweight materials as much as possible. To be specific, all body panels are stamped with aluminum ABS, body frame, chassis, battery box (tray) , anti-collision beam is also a uniform aluminum parts.

Aluminum Body frame, all aluminum body frame is made of Aluminum Alloy extruded profiles, the world’s first aluminum alloy car frame is released in 2011 Audi A8. Generally, there are about 70 kinds of extruded profiles with different cross-sections used in body frame assembly. The quality of profiles accounts for more than 80% of the total mass of frames, 16.5% of plates, 2.8% of castings, and a small number of stampings. The extruding material and die-extruding parts are made of 6005A-T6 and 5005A alloy respectively, and the casting is made of ZL301 alloy. Body joint technology, body by hundreds of parts, these parts together to form a strong and durable body is a very complex technical work. The connection of body parts is the effective connection between skeleton and skeleton, skin and skeleton, steel parts and aluminum parts, door and skeleton, interior decoration and skeleton. For all-aluminum body structure, the key work is the skeleton and skeleton, skin and skeleton between the connection. According to the light weight criterion, the parts connected by welding process are the lightest, the parts connected by riveting process are the second, and the parts connected by bolt are the heaviest. According to the reliability of fatigue strength, the best parts are bolted and riveted, followed by welded parts. According to the production cost accounting, bolt connection process is the most expensive.

Self-piercing riveting is a kind of technology which is transplanted from the manufacture of aerospace. The rivets are pressed directly into the plate to be connected by the power provided by the motor. The plate is deformed and shaped by plastic deformation of the rivets under the pressure of the rivets, filling in the riveting die to connect the sheet metal parts. Rivets have higher fatigue strength and static fastening force. Therefore, the vehicle made by this technology has stronger body rigidity, under the impact condition, the vehicle made by riveting technology can withstand more severe impact, and ensure the safety of people in the vehicle. However, aluminum alloy is more sensitive to heat, if the body parts are connected by traditional welding process, the strength of the material will decrease, and the welding deformation will occur, which can not guarantee the dimension precision of the whole aluminum body. Therefore, the aluminum body should be used instead of spot welding riveting, and supplemented by adhesive bonding, so as to ensure the strength of the connection parts. At the same time, the adhesive bonding process can also improve the sealing of the car body. Bonding technology can also be used to connect aluminum parts to different materials.

Aluminum Alloy Chassis, in all aluminum cars, chassis is also a large part. Aluminum Alloy Chassis must be high strength, corrosion and impact resistance, and have excellent fatigue resistance. The forgings for chassis are made of 6082-T6 aluminum alloy, which can be forged by conventional casting as-extrusion rolls or by extrusion-forging as-solid-solution fire-foshan or as-solid-solution. Alloy 6082 is an Al-Mg-Si-Mn alloy. It was developed by the European Aluminum Industry Association and registered with American Aluminum Industry Association in 1972. The Rear Bogie of chassis is made of ZL101-T6 aluminum alloy and can be manufactured by squeeze casting or vacuum die casting —— -- solid fire -- dissolving -- artificial aging. The alloy is a kind of AI-Mg-Si cast aluminum alloy. Compared with the steel plate former assembly, the former assembly is made of 6063 and 6016 aluminum alloy, which not only reduces the quality greatly, but also improves the anti-collision effect. 6063 and 6016 alloys are two kinds of commonly used wrought aluminum alloys. The manufacturing cost of Aluminium Alloy anti-collision beam is about 18.5% higher than that of steel beam.

Battery system is very important, new batteries need to be developed, for electric vehicles, battery system is very important. The current lithium-ion battery uses an electrolyte called Lithium Salt, which is a type of lithium hexafluorophosphate that is toxic, can cause fires, explosions, and has low battery power. In small, portable devices, the lithium-ion batteries pose little risk and can be used safely. However, the potential dangers of lithium ion batteries are heightened in large battery packs, such as electric cars and outdoor grid sized storage systems. Higher Voltage, higher power batteries are being designed abroad, and hexafluorophosphate(1-) can not be used in batteries for such large battery systems. According to an article in the 2021, scientists at Monash University’s School of chemistry in Melbourne, Australia, are studying the replacement of hexafluorophosphate(1-) with fluoroborate, the lithium battery using fluoroborate as electrolyte has high safety. However, R & D faces the challenge of preparing cell-grade high-purity fluoroborate. Monash University scientists solved the problem by recrystallizing fluoroborate into a lithium battery containing a lithium manganese oxide cathode. Even if the battery is exposed to the atmosphere, it can be recycled more than 1,000 times, which is more than hexafluorophosphate(1-) can do. When fluoroborate is combined with a new cathode material in high voltage lithium batteries, the performance of the electrolyte is much better than that of conventional salts. What’s more, the salt is highly stable on aluminum collectors at high voltages, one of the properties necessary for the next generation of batteries

In the light-weight base of Weiqiao under construction, the light-weight of automobile has become an irreversible trend. Since 2018, Shandong Weiqiao group is committed to building a light-weight production base for automotive aluminum alloy components, forming a green ecological recycling industry chain from aluminum melt to the recycling of the assembly. Weiqiao lightweight base is made up of 4 companies, they are Shandong Hongao Automobile Lightweight Technology Co. , Ltd. , Weiqiao New Material Technology Co. , Ltd. , Shandong Weiqiao Lightweight Materials Co. , Ltd. , Shandong Honghe Lightweight Technology Co. , Ltd. . Shandong Weiqiao lightweight base has joined hands with Suzhou University, Hangqiao Technology Co. , Ltd. , Guangzhou Hede Co. , Ltd. to build the largest, most advanced, full-flow Automotive Lightweight R & D, test and manufacturing base in China. Suzhou University mainly develops series of high-performance aluminum alloy and material processing technology, Suzhou Aojie Automobile Co. , Ltd. is responsible for vehicle design and assembly product preparation, Hangqiao Technology Co. , Ltd. is responsible for forgings manufacturing and component integration, guangzhou Hede Co. , Ltd. is responsible for liquid die forging of aluminum alloy structural parts. Weiqiao Lightweight Materials Co. , Ltd. carry the banner.

Weiqiao lightweight base production capacity, Weiqiao lightweight base has a total of four sub-bases, namely Zouping Center base, Binzhou base, east China base, central China base. The total production capacity is 17 million castings per year, 500,000 stamping parts per year, 3 million forgings per year, 50,000 plates per year, 200,000 profiles per year, 1 million body parts per year. The main products of squeeze casting include suspension system parts, such as airbag seat, steering knuckle, control wall, shock absorber bracket, power system parts, such as drive motor bracket, clutch hub, battery end plate, generator suspension bracket; And the other parts such as the differential housing, the scroll disk component, the motorcycle gate, the exhaust treatment system bracket, etc. . The main products of forging are the workpieces with forging capacity of less than 1t per piece, all wrought aluminium alloys used, die forgings of all wrought aluminium alloys, the projection area of each piece should be less than 0.6 m2, and the mass of each piece should be less than 150kg. The concrete parts are straight rod head, Bent Rod head, v Joint, ball pin, control arm, universal joint fork, spline shaft fork, engine support, right suspension aluminum bracket, piston skirt. The assembly products include passenger car and commercial vehicle aluminum alloy anti-collision beam, electric vehicle battery tray (battery frame) , light truck, medium truck and heavy truck lightweight cargo box, medium truck and heavy truck lightweight trailer, aOO Class, AO class, a class of frame-type aluminum body, B, c class of all aluminum body, 6m-12m of all types of passenger cars all aluminum body. All aluminum passenger cars are 40% lighter than steel cars, 25% lighter than steel frames, 38% lighter than steel logistics vehicles, and 6m-18m buses and buses are 40% lighter than steel cars. At the same time, the all-aluminum container has better corrosion resistance and heat preservation performance than the steel container.

Weiqiao lightweight base has entered into extensive cooperation agreements with a number of automobile manufacturing companies. Strong R & D Team and R & D capability, Weiqiao lightweight base has established a complete R & D SYSTEM AND R & D team. In 2020, more than 1,200 top lightweight experts from home and abroad, led by Zhang Hai and others, covering all fields such as material research and development, process research, parts and vehicle design, have drilled dozens of core patents, and in a number of lightweight technology and product areas to form a major international impact of innovation and breakthrough. Weiqiao light weight (Suzhou) Technology Co. , Ltd. and Weiqiao Suda Material Research Institute focus on Automotive High Performance Aluminum Alloy R & D, and has developed a series of automotive high performance alloys. Shandong Hongao Technology Co. , Ltd. has 850 engineers and technicians, the whole book has rich experience in lightweight design, has developed a number of hot market lightweight models. Hangqiao New Material Co. , Ltd. is an aluminum alloy forging plant. There are 1 free forging machine of 500MN and 1 die forging machine of 36MN, 25MN and 16MN respectively, for FAW development of aluminum alloy thrust rod parts also entered the stage of batch supply. Shandong Honghe Technology Co. , Ltd. has a squeeze casting team headed by the top experts in the industry, engaged in squeeze casting alloy, products, processes, mold development, it has successfully developed and mass produced dozens of high strength and toughness squeeze casting structural parts for Tesla Motor Co. , Dongfeng Motor Co. , Mazda Motor Co. and Fukuda Daimler Motor Co. .

Breakthrough new alloy research, Weiqiao lightweight base materials research and development team has made some breakthrough achievements in the field of aluminum alloy research and development, they adopted multi-strengthening phase design, multi-stage homogenization treatment, equal yield extrusion process and heat treatment process based on service performance, and developed Gao Qiang, high toughness 6XXX series alloy for vehicle. Its yield strength is 385 MPA, elongation > 10% , fatigue strength > 140 MPA. HSW-4 alloy is used for forging control arm, steering knuckle, universal joint, thrust bar, etc. . HSW-3 alloy is used for forging control arm, steering knuckle, steering knuckle, etc, extrusion profile frame, bumper, body frame, battery tray, etc. . HSW-2 alloy is used to extrude complex section profiles such as car body frame and battery tray. HSW-1 alloy is used to extrude complex cross-section profiles such as body frame, battery tray, etc. . There are 3 kinds of newly developed WZL series high strength and high toughness cast aluminum alloys. WZL-1 and WZL-2 alloys are used in die casting such as body-joint, crossbeam, Longitudinal beam, B column, Bottom heat-sub frame, damping tower, etc. . WZL-3 alloy is used for squeeze casting chassis-control arm, steering knuckle, etc. . Weight reduction effect of HSW-2 alloy cargo box HSW-2 alloy is a kind of high strength and high toughness deformation aluminum alloy, yield strength ≥350MPA, elongation > 10% , using its plate to manufacture 4340MMX2135MMX2320MM cargo box, the effect of weight reduction is remarkable. For example, the mass of the steel box is 904kg, the mass of the traditional aluminum box is 452kg, while the mass of the new alloy HSW-2 box is 406kg, which is 55.1% lighter than the steel box and 10.2% lighter than the traditional aluminum box.

High-efficiency aluminum recycling technology to ensure the recycling of waste aluminum, Weiqiao lightweight base to create a new “Carrier”full-flow Collision Control Iron removal technology can recover the impurities in waste aluminum to the level of high-quality A356 alloy, so as to ensure the use of recycled aluminum, aluminum alloy formed a benign closed-circuit circulation. The A356 alloy with iron removed by the new method has uniform microstructure, and the mechanical properties, especially the toughness, have been improved remarkably.

By 2017, China has been entrusted by the National Strategy Advisory Committee for building a strong manufacturing country and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the energy-saving and new energy vehicle technology roadmap, a large-scale joint research project led by the China Automotive Engineering Society and completed by 500 experts over a year, was released in Shanghai. The Technology Road Map describes China’s automotive industry technology development blueprint for 15 years. Among them, one of the overall goals of the future development of energy-saving and new energy vehicle technology roadmap is that the new energy vehicle gradually becomes the mainstream product, and the automobile industry initially realizes the electric transformation. The overall goal of the road map is that by 2020,2025 and 2030, China’s annual sales of new energy vehicles are expected to reach 100,000,5 million and 15 million respectively. The target for energy-saving passenger cars is to achieve 4L per 100 km of fuel consumption by 2025 and 3.2 l per 100 km by 2035. The general idea is that 2016-2020 will be the first phase, with emphasis on the development of ultra-high Strength Steel and advanced high strength steel technology to achieve a high strength steel application ratio of more than 50% in automobiles; and 2021 will be the second phase, based on the technology of the third generation automobile steel and aluminum alloy, the large-scale application of steel, aluminum and other mixed materials body and whole body body body body is realized, and the mass production and industrial application of aluminum alloy covering parts and aluminum alloy parts are realized, the third generation of automotive steel is 30% of the body mass, and the period 2026-2030 is the third stage, with emphasis on the development of magnesium alloy and carbon fiber composite materials technology to solve the recycling problem of magnesium alloy and composite materials, to achieve a wide range of carbon fiber composite hybrid body and carbon fiber parts, breakthrough complex parts forming technology and heterogeneous parts connecting technology.

 Source: Non-ferrous metal, by Wang Zhutang