With people's increasing awareness of environmental protection, vehicle exhaust emissions have become a hot topic. In order to reduce vehicle exhaust emissions, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed new vehicle emission standards, which also promotes the growth trend of electric vehicles in the future market. In the manufacturing process of electric vehicles, materials such as aluminum, hot forming steel, and high-strength steel have also been widely used. This article will discuss in detail the application of these materials in electric vehicles and their contribution to environmental protection. 

EPA's New Vehicle Emissions Requirements Push Electric Vehicles

With the acceleration of industrialization and the popularization of vehicles, vehicle exhaust emissions have become a global problem. In order to deal with this problem, governments and environmental protection organizations of various countries have formulated corresponding vehicle emission standards. In the United States, vehicle emission standards promulgated by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are considered to be one of the most stringent in the world. In recent years, the EPA has proposed a new vehicle emission standard called "Tier 3", requiring automakers to reduce emission to much lower levels when producing new vehicles. 

Tier 3 standards are designed to require automakers to reduce exhaust emissions when building new cars. According to the standard, the total amount of harmful gases such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and non-methane volatile organic compounds emitted by gasoline vehicles must be reduced by 70%, and sulfur emissions must be reduced by 80%. Similarly, emissions from diesel vehicles also need to meet stricter requirements. The Tier 3 standard will be officially implemented in 2025, which will promote the growth of electric vehicles in the future market.

Application of Aluminum in Electric Vehicles

Aluminum is a lightweight, high-strength metal material with excellent corrosion resistance and plasticity. Its application in electric vehicles has the following aspects: 

Battery Case Manufacturing 

The battery case of an electric vehicle needs to have high strength and corrosion resistance, while maintaining good heat dissipation performance. Aluminum is one of the materials that meets these requirements, so it is widely used in the manufacture of battery casings. 

Body structure manufacturing 

Due to its high strength and light weight, aluminum is suitable for the body structure of electric vehicles. By using aluminum, the weight of the car body can be greatly reduced, thereby increasing the cruising range of electric vehicles. 

Chassis Manufacturing 

Aluminum can also be used to manufacture the chassis of electric vehicles, which can improve the rigidity and stability of the chassis and improve driving safety.

Application of Thermoforming in Electric Vehicles

Thermoforming is a new automotive manufacturing process that enables the creation of more complex, lighter and stronger automotive components. Thermoforming uses high heat and pressure to mold aluminum sheet parts into complex shapes while reducing material waste, improving production efficiency and product quality. 

In electric vehicles, thermoforming can create lighter and stronger body and chassis components, thereby increasing the energy efficiency and driving range of electric vehicles. In addition, thermoforming can also produce safer body parts, thereby improving the safety performance of vehicles.

Application of high-strength steel in electric vehicles

With the development of new energy vehicles, traditional automotive materials have been difficult to meet the development needs of new energy vehicles. As an emerging material, high-strength steel is gradually becoming a popular choice in new energy vehicles. 

High-strength steel refers to steel with a tensile strength above 500MPa, which has the advantages of high strength, high toughness, high ductility, and high fatigue resistance. In new energy vehicles, high-strength steel can reduce the weight of the body, increase the strength of the body, increase the rigidity of the body, and improve the safety performance of the body.

The application of high-strength steel can be viewed from the following aspects: 

reduce body weight 

With the continuous improvement of battery technology, the cruising range of electric vehicles has been significantly improved. However, the weight of electric vehicles also increases, which not only reduces the energy efficiency of the vehicle, but also increases the energy consumption of the vehicle. Therefore, reducing the weight of the vehicle body is one of the important means to improve the cruising range of electric vehicles. The density of high-strength steel is relatively small, and lighter materials can be used to achieve the same strength and rigidity, thereby reducing the weight of the vehicle body. 

Improve body strength 

In terms of crash safety, the application of high-strength steel can significantly improve the safety performance of automobiles. Generally speaking, the tensile strength of high-strength steel is more than 50% higher than that of ordinary steel, which means that in a collision accident, the force-bearing capacity of the vehicle has been significantly improved, thereby protecting the safety of passengers. 

Increase body rigidity 

The application of high-strength steel can also increase the rigidity of the body, thereby improving the stability and handling of the vehicle. In electric vehicles, due to the relatively large weight of batteries, body stiffness is particularly important for maintaining vehicle balance and stability. High-strength steel can provide better stiffness and stability, thereby improving the driving experience and handling of electric vehicles.  

Overall, as the electric vehicle market continues to grow and environmental regulations continue to tighten, automakers are adopting a range of innovative materials and manufacturing processes to improve the efficiency and performance of electric vehicles and reduce their environmental impact. Materials such as aluminium, thermoformed and high-strength steel all play an important role in this. 

In the future, with the continuous maturity of the electric vehicle market and the continuous innovation of technology, we can foresee that more materials and processes will be used in electric vehicles to create a more environmentally friendly, efficient, safe and comfortable way of travel for us.