GM Ready to Build Aluminum Pickup Trucks

According to reports published in the Wall Street Journal, General Motors (GM) recently signed contracts with two of the nation’s largest aluminum suppliers, a move that will finally allow the automaker to begin building aluminum-bodied pickup trucks.

The newspaper reported that General Motors had wanted to begin building aluminum trucks to better meet fuel economy standards and stay competitive in the domestic pickup market back in 2008, but the company’s finances would not support it at that time. Now, with new contracts in place, suppliers Alcoa Inc. and Novelis Inc. are already ramping up aluminum production to help GM to get its next-generation pickup to dealers by late 2018.

Although current Chevrolet and GMC trucks’ efficient use of high-strength steel makes them lighter than older models, the use of weight saving aluminum body panels will dramatically improve their fuel mileage and hauling capabilities. Perhaps even more importantly, GM needs to build with aluminum to stay competitive with Ford. After a new aluminum F-150 pickup debuted at the Detroit auto show last month, the blue oval company announced it will begin selling its’ new truck before the end of this year. Ford has stated the new F-150’s body will be made of 95% military grade aluminum alloy and weigh nearly 700 pounds lesser than its’ current truck.

General Motors’ product chief Mark Reuss showed visible interest in Ford’s aluminum F-150 at the auto show and told reporters “I’m going to be looking at how much aluminum is in it? What are the panels? How are they constructed? I’m going to look at what they advertise as the weight savings from it. Then I’m going to go back and do some math.”

The Wall Street Journal report speculated that “GM is hoping to use more advanced welding techniques than Ford uses to reduce the complexity and cost of producing aluminum bodies, while making them even lighter and stronger than those of the new F-150.” However, a GM spokesman said in an e-mail following the auto show “We are going to continue to improve the fuel efficiency of all of our products. For competitive reasons, we are not talking about technical details of future products at this point.” For the legions of GM pickup truck enthusiasts, those “future products” probably cannot debut soon enough.