Nissan to use advanced high tensile strength steel in up to 25% of new model parts

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Nissan Motor Co on Wednesday announced its plan to expand the use of advanced high tensile strength steel (AHSS) in up to 25% of the vehicle parts (measured by weight) installed in its new production models. Nissan will make use of advanced high tensile strength steel starting in 2017 as one of its initiatives to help reduce vehicle weight.

Nissan has developed 1.2 gigapascal (GPa) Ultra High Tensile Strength Steel with High Formability and has employed it in the new Infiniti Q50, which goes on sale in North America later this year. Prior to the development of 1.2GPa ultra high strength steel, it had been difficult to use high tensile steels for vehicle parts with highly-complex shapes.

With the active adoption of 1.2 GPa ultra high strength steel, which is one grade among several types of advanced high tensile strength steels, Nissan will increase the adoption rate of AHSS as far as 25% the gross weight of the parts installed per vehicle. This effort will begin in 2017 and aims to reduce the weight of Nissan’s vehicles by 15% with corresponding body structure rationalization.

In addition, employing 1.2 GPa high tensile strength steel leads to fewer materials used per vehicle produced, and existing production lines can be used without a big modification. This results in a reduction in total cost per unit.