Jaguar Land Rover has announced that the brand will be repurposing technology developed for the Aerospace industry to make lightweight yet strong vehicles in the near future. The brand has announced that it will be taking part in research and testing of advanced lightweight metals and composites to be used in future vehicles.
The project will run for two years and the company will use the advanced materials that have been developed for the aerospace industry to understand how the materials respond to corrosive environments and over tough terrains in global markets. Jaguar Land Rover will build aerospace-grade sensors with samples of new metals and composites. The brand will put these into a trial for over 400,000 km across North America, in some of the most extreme physical conditions.
The new sensors will automatically measure the performance of the new metals and composites, data which will be shared with Jaguar Land Rover’s team in the UK. Using this data, engineers will be able to precisely predict the behaviour of the material, easing the development programme in the future, ensuring the next-generation materials meet the company’s stringent standards, delivering a durable, high-quality finish.
The research forms part of Gesamtverband der Aluminiumindustrie (GDA), a consortium of aluminium manufacturers and carmakers researching the endurance of substances and how they can be made lighter and more durable. It is also aligned with the Jaguar Land Rover’s Destination Zero vision – a future with zero emissions, zero accidents and zero congestion. The Destination Zero is also working with industry leaders to ensure quality assurance increase efficiency and decrease emissions and accidents. Building on the research into future materials, the ‘Reality’ project will be establishing a recycling process which gives premium automotive-grade aluminium a second life, to the development of printed structural electronics, which can reduce the weight of in-car electronics by up to 60%.