Sustainable: voestalpine and electromobility

The number of electric vehicles as a share of total vehicles globally continues to grow, despite the economic slump of the past years. This is confirmed by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its Global EV Outlook 2022. Its Stated Policies Scenario, or STEPS, reflects current sustainability plans at a global level. Accordingly, electric vehicles (EV) are predicted to make up more than 20% of all vehicle sales by the year 2030. This would increase the number of electric vehicles on the road by a factor of 11, to around 200 million vehicles. As well as cars, there would also be hundreds of millions of electric mopeds, scooters, motorbikes, and tricycles, as well as millions of commercial, electric buses, delivery vehicles, and trucks.

Electric vehicles in place of combustion vehicles—the mobility transition is a huge opportunity to save fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions. It is calculated that by 2030, having electric vehicles of all types on the roads will reduce crude oil consumption by almost 3.5 million barrels, or around 479,000 tons, daily. This is more than the United Arab Emirates produces.

There will be no progress in e-mobility without steel. Electric motors, drive shafts, and safety components are several key examples of how steel is used in electric vehicles, while generators built from components made from electrical steel strip provide the required electrical energy. In this sector, voestalpine is one of the most well-known suppliers of prematerials, electrical steel strip, and a multitude of other components which are essential to electromobility.

Whether hybrids with electrical backup or purely battery-driven vehicles, electric motors need electrical steel laminations to perform. These special steel strip products have never been as important as they are today. And never before have so many been needed: by 2030, demand is expected to have increased tenfold, just for electric vehicle manufacture. Depending on the drive type and output, around 50 to 100 kg of the magnetically soft material is used to build an electric vehicle’s motor. With its isovac® electrical steel strip, voestalpine is supplying a key component for electromobility.

Group sales of electrical steel strip are at an all-time high, with demand significantly outstripping supply. With isovac®, voestalpine offers electrical steel strip with the ideal properties for electromobility:

• outstanding magnetization
• excellent for stamping
• offers minimal magnetic loss

European automotive manufacturers value electrical steel strip made in Linz. “Nowadays, almost 1 in every 5 electric vehicles manufactured in Europe is powered with the aid of voestalpine electrical steel strip,” calculates Stefan K.