Authors' Not.: This article is based on a recently completed multiclient study of the same name. To be competitive in the global automobile industry, it is no longer enough to understand manufacturing cost alone. The growing emphasis on environmental impact has forced life-cycle cost issues to the forefront. This article defines the life cycle of automotive structures and exterior panels-the body-in-white-to include manufacturing, operation, and post-use. These body-in-white life-cycle costs are assessed for a midsize, four-door sedan using an implementation of a technique called technical cost modeling. This article describes the life-cycle cost-assessment methodology and applies it for alternative body-in-white structure and exterior panel materials. These include steel stampings; aluminum stampings, extrusions, and castings; and resin/glass composite and thermoplastic moldings. The lifecycle costs are presented and analyzed for varying manufacturing scenarios. Although life-cycle costs currently do not drive the decision-making process in the automotive industries, legislative and consumer pressures could one day give them added weight.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office Materials Area commissioned a study to model and assess manufacturing economics of alternative design and production strategies for a series of lightweight vehicle concepts. The strategic targets were a 40% and a 45% mass reduction relative to a standard North American midsize passenger sedan at an effective cost of $3.42 per pound (lb) saved.The baseline vehicle was an average of several available vehicles in this class. Mass and cost breakdowns from several sources were used, including original equipment manufacturers' (OEMs') input through U.S. Department of Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office programs and public presentations, A2Mac1 LLC's teardown information, Lotus Engineering Limited and FEV, Inc. breakdowns in their respective lightweighting studies, and IBIS Associates, Inc.'s decades of experience in automotive lightweighting and materials substitution analyses. Information on lightweighting strategies in this analysis came from these same sources and the ongoing U.S.

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