Altair Enlighten Award 2017- Automotive Industry’s Only Award Devoted to Vehicle Lightweighting

The Altair Enlighten Award honors the greatest accomplishment in vehicle weight savings each year. It also aims to stimulate industry interest, educators, engineering, policymakers, the public and students. It creates further competition for new ideas in the industry. The Altair Enlighten Award is the only award program in the industry that is developed to recognize innovation in vehicle weight reduction. The year 2017 is the fifth year of this program.

This year’s Altair Enlighten Award was presented to Toyota on the 31^st of July at CAR Management Briefing Seminars (MBS) in Traverse City, Michigan. Toyota was given the Altair Enlighten Award on the opening day of MBS, during the event of the World Class Manufacturing session.

“We are excited to offer closure systems that are optimized to the unique mission of each vehicle,” said JP Flaharty, executive program manager at Toyota Motor North America Research & Development. “With CFRP applied to the Prius Prime liftgate and the Lexus LC side doors and luggage hatch, our customers recognize the light touch and high tech appearance of these sophisticated, lightweight door systems. Our entire development team is honored to receive this coveted award.”

Toyota was awarded for its innovation in using weight reducing closure systems in a vehicle- for using carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) inner panels on the Prius Prime liftgate, and luggage hatch and side doors on the Lexus LC 500.

This lightweighting technology used in the Prius Prime proved savings of 40 percent when compared to an aluminum liftgate sized vehicle. The Lexus LC has a weight saving of 47 percent on its side door and a 40 percent reduction on its luggage hatch when compared to conventional steel structures.

For Toyota, lightweighting these systems was a way to increase battery range and to enhance liftgate usability for the Prius Prime plug-in hybrid technology while the weight reduction in the Lexus LC was aimed at boosting the dynamic performance of the coupe.