To demonstrate the manufacturing feasibility of lightweight sealed steel fuel tanks for plug in hybrid and extended range electric vehicles, the Strategic Alliance for Steel Fuel Tanks, in collaboration with the Auto Steel Partnership and the United States Automotive Materials Partnership, announced its plans to develop a methodology for producing lightweight sealed steel fuel tanks with 30% to 40% mass reductions when compared with current generation sealed steel tanks.

Funded by the US Department of Energy, the project will show that manufacturing approaches can be used with thinner high strength steel and advanced high strength steel to reduce mass and meet performance requirements associated with sealed systems, including structural integrity, fatigue, corrosion, durability and crash integrity.

Mr Peter Mould, program manager for SASFT, said that "To provide a fuel tank in a plug in hybrid electric vehicle that avoids vapor purging, but accommodates high internal pressure buildup, current generation tanks are made of thick steel walls that can add unnecessary mass. That's why we will work to provide steel tanks with the same mechanical performance required for advanced hybrid vehicles that will have thinner walls, contributing directly to vehicle mass reduction and reduced fuel consumption."

According to Mr Mould, AHSS systems having good corrosion resistance to automotive fuels are ideal materials for plug in hybrid electric vehicle tank applications. The lightweight sealed steel fuel tanks will provide high rigidity under high operating pressures that is lacking from competing plastic materials.

The project will use advanced computer forming methodologies and will be performed in two overlapping phases using the sealed fuel tanks from two current plug-in hybrid electric vehicles as initial benchmarks.