Energy Efficiency Improvement and Cost Saving Opportunities for the Vehicle Assembly Industry: An ENERGY STAR Guide for Energy and Plant Managers

Abstract

The motor vehicle industry in the U.S. spends about $3.6 billion on energy annually. In this report, we focus on auto assembly plants. In the U.S., over 70 assembly plants currently produce 13 million cars and trucks each year. In assembly plants, energy expenditures is a relatively small cost factor in the total production process. Still, as manufacturers face an increasingly competitive environment, energy efficiency improvements can provide a means to reduce costs without negatively affecting the yield or the quality of the product. In addition, reducing energy costs reduces the unpredictability associated with variable energy prices in today's marketplace, which could negatively affect predictable earnings, an important element for publicly-traded companies such as those in the motor vehicle industry.In this report, we first present a summary of the motor vehicle assembly process and energy use. This is followed by a discussion of energy efficiency opportunities available for assembly plants. Where available, we provide specific primary energy savings for each energy efficiency measure based on case studies, as well as references to technical literature. If available, we have listed costs and typical payback periods. We include experiences of assembly plants worldwide with energy efficiency measures reviewed in the report. Our findings suggest that although most motor vehicle companies in the U.S. have energy management teams or programs, there are still opportunities available at individual plants to reduce energy consumption cost effectively. Further research on the economics of the measures for individual assembly plants, as part of an energy management program, is needed to assess the potential impact of selected technologies at these plants.iv

Energy-consumption and carbon-emission analysis of vehicle and component manufacturing.

“…16 and 30;Brown et al, 1996, Processes 1 and 2, pg. 305; Burnham et al, 2006;Galitsky and Worrell, 2008, Of the 99.4% of vehicle mass accounted for, 92.7% of it is operated on by one of the transformation processes identified in Table 2. The transformation processes incurred for the remainder of the material are assumed to be either a part of the material production stage (e.g.…”

“…However, for the reasons just stated, such variation should not be surprising. Berry and Fels (1972) 23.2 Brown et al (1996) 52.8 Galitsky et al (2008) 15.1 Kobayashi (2007) 19.9 1.04 Schuckert et al (1997) 24.1 1.43 a Sullivan and Hu (1995) 30.6 Sullivan et al (1998b) 39.9 2.61 Boyd (2005) 13.5 b a Estimated from data in reference b Does not include plants with stamping, machining, and casting Berry and Fels (1972) were among the first to calculate the VMA primary energy consumption, E vm . Their approach uses financial, material, and energy data from the Census of Manufacturers.…”

“…In a recent report, Galitsky and Worrell (2008) discussed energy efficiency improvement opportunities available to the auto assembly sector. Many energy efficiency improvement opportunities are identified, but also listed in the document are some representative energy consumptions for processes of interest to us, as well as overall vehicle assembly energy.…”

“…[5]) are quite reliable and well documented (Boyd, 2005;Galitsky and Worrell, 2008), there is some remaining uncertainty about the burdens for part manufacturing, i.e. {VM c * }.…”

Estimating the Technical Improvement of Energy Efficiency in the Automotive Industry—Stochastic and Deterministic Frontier Benchmarking Approaches

“…Galitsky and Worrell [9] collected energy efficiency improvement opportunities available to car manufacturers. They identified many energy efficiency improvement opportunities for each automotive manufacturing operation.…”