Material composition always fascinates me as it relates to the automotive industry  – “material composition” being the overly academic way to say “this vehicle is made from that.” There are some materials that show up regularly in automotive manufacturing, like high-strength steel and aluminum. These materials are like marquee movies at the theater in the sense they get billed first, and are often highlighted most in an automaker’s press and marketing releases.
Trucks & Tool Boxes
A good example is when Ford switched over to aluminum for the 2015 F-150, following suit a short time later with the Super Duty. Given the sales volume of the F-150, the quantity of aluminum needed to support production, and cross town rivals GM and Ram still running steel body trucks, it’s easy to see why aluminum received so much attention, even though other materials (like steel funny enough) are used for the F-150. Chevrolet billed their Silverado in response as the truck made with “high-strength steel for high-strength dependability.” We’ve all seen the tool box commercials right" Given the Silverado is a big seller, and with marketing pushing steel in those commercials, it’s easy to see why steel (even though Silverado uses aluminum too) gets all the attention. Ram has stayed out of this battle but reveal their strategy for the forthcoming 2019 1500 was placing materials “not just where possible but where pract...