The Multi Material Lightweight Vehicle (MMLV) developed by Magna International and Ford Motor Company is a result of a US Department of Energy project DE-EE0005574. The project demonstrates the lightweighting potential of a five passenger sedan, while maintaining vehicle performance and occupant safety. Prototype vehicles were manufactured and limited full vehicle testing was conducted. The Mach-I vehicle design, comprised of commercially available materials and production processes, achieved a 364kg (23.5%) full vehicle mass reduction, enabling the application of a 1.0-liter three-cylinder engine resulting in a significant environmental benefits and fuel consumption reduction.
As part of this project, several automotive chassis components were selected for development and evaluation on the MMLV C/D segment passenger sedan. The key chassis technologies included composite and hollow steel coil springs, carbon fiber wheels, tires with a tall and narrow design, hollow steel stabilizer bars, aluminum subframes, control arms, and links. The MMLV chassis system achieved 98 kg mass reduction. These lightweight chassis parts used mixed and multi-materials to optimize the resulting weight savings. The identified technologies in this presentation provided an opportunity to successfully demonstrate that use of select components may result in up to 74 kg decrease in mass for an automotive chassis system.