As Jody Hall, the Steel Market Development Institute’s automotive market vice president, told Repairer Driven News, the OEMs indeed have been turning to other materials to reduce vehicle mass. However, they’ve come back to steel because the competing materials can’t beat steel’s affordability. 

Therefore, she and other steel advocates are confident that the materials “pendulum is going to swing back” and return market share to steel, Hall told the publication. 

Case in point, she said, is the Chevrolet Suburban liftgate that GM planned to make out of aluminum.

“They had a terrible time trying to make it out of aluminum,” Hall said. And in the end, GM went back to using steel for the part because “cost became more important” than the couple of pounds saved, she said.  

You can read the full Repairer Driven News interview here.