TOKYO MOTOR SHOW: Lightweight bodies for Honda from 2020

Honda’s R&D team is busy developing new construction methods that will see
super-light body technologies become available in passenger vehicles by
the end of the decade, potentially slashing fuel consumption by 20 per
cent.

Using technology derived from F1, and more recently the HondaJet,
the advanced vehicle bodies would be up to half the weight of a
conventional steel-bodied passenger car.

Honda says the use of a
carbon-fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) floor monocoque attached to an
aluminium space frame would give the structure of its vehicles the
stiffness, strength and impact absorption characteristics required,
while reducing the amount of metal used.

External panels would be
moulded from plastic, while the front end would be constructed of
stronger glass fibre reinforced thermoplastic (GFRTP).

It is
estimated that a reduction in vehicle weight of 30 per cent would
achieve a 40 per cent increase in acceleration performance and a 20 per
cent reduction in fuel economy.

But there is a catch... and it’s bound to cause a little hip-pocket angst.

Speaking
at a media event ahead of the Tokyo motor show, Honda R&D engineer
Yuta Urushiyama told motoring.com.au that lightweight body technology is
closer to featuring in production cars than we might think, but that
scales of economy were an important consideration.

“It will take some
more time, but we are targeting [mainstream production] sometime in the
2020s,” said Urushiyama-san. “It really depends on how much fuel
efficiency society demands at the time, then we can decide how far down
range we can apply this technology to our cars.”

Urushiyama-san said
that Honda is developing lightweight bodies to quickly achieve even
greater fuel economy from its newly developed Earth Dreams engines, adding that the
construction methods under development would mean CFRP bodied vehicles
will be as safe as their steel siblings.

“We analyse the properties
of the carbon fibre material at the moment so that we can establish the
safety in designing and using the material in the car,” he explained.

“In
addition to Formula One, we have taken some applications from the
HondaJet. The reliability features [of the material] we used for
HondaJet is also used in this application.”

But Urushiyama-san admits
that CFRP and other lightweight body technologies do have their limits
in commercial applications, and that end-of-life considerations and
cost-to-market issues were a concern in getting the technology to the
buying public.

“At the moment recycling is difficult, however, we
have a research project underway and perhaps in five years that process
will not be so difficult,” said Urushiyama-san.

He added that the technology would become an integral part of manufacturing, albeit at a cost.

“Assuming
that technology is industrialised to a certain level it [a CFRB body]
will add 1,000,000 Yen [$A10,000] extra [compared to the cost of a steel
body]. But that is also related to how the CFRP material is made,” he clarified.

“If
we used a conventional process, that would be 5,000,000 Yen [$A50,000]
more. Honda’s method is cheaper because of the level of automation.”

If
Honda can perfect the process of manufacturing CFRP bodied cars the
technology could appear as part of an eco-friendlier vehicle range
comprising a suite of Earth Dreams technologies.

A brief drive of a
Honda CR-V constructed entirely from the methods listed above proves
Honda is indeed of the right path. The tub-style construction makes the
prototype a little hard to clamber in and out of, but Urushiyama-san
made assurances that Honda has “good prospective technology to make the
floor flatter”.

The vehicle sample was an early prototype, and
although appearing somewhat unfinished, it felt secure and nimble in a
short drive around an urban handling circuit at Honda’s Tochigi R&D
Centre.

The body proved taut under lateral loads and seemed to allow
the suspension to remain composed under load and when dealing with
surface anomalies.

A quick lap of a 600 metre circuit isn’t going
to tell us a whole deal, especially at 40km/h, but it does prove that
Honda has an ace up its sleeve in getting this kind of technology to the
road.

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