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Originally Posted by SDNR  Great article. I expect we will see CF, Kevlar, and other lightweight composite materials used in mainstream vehicles more and more in the coming years. Apart from the rising cost of steel, the obvious relationship between weight reduction and lower fuel consumption has been a driving force behind the increased interest in these materials. |
Light weight materials should be complemented with clever design to achieve maximum weight reduction. Toyota has shown the way with their iQ, which has a new compact air conditioning design and various clever engineering (i can't remember all of them) to minimise the weight and size of the hidden components.