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Sustainable: voestalpine and electromobility

Sustainable: voestalpine and electromobility

voestalpine creates mobility — electromobility. High-performance electrical steel strip made by voestalpine is helping to drive the most important mobility trend of our time.

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Half transparent rendering of Electric Car with highlighted electrical steel strip
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In this article

Away from gasoline and diesel-driven cars. The public is more aware of the mobility transition than any other climate protection activity. The trend is from combustion engines to electric vehicles. This shift should massively reduce the volume of carbon dioxide emitted by vehicles worldwide. voestalpine is supporting the necessary changes in vehicle production with materials and innovative ideas.

The advantages of 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.

Illustration of a semi-transparent e-car driving on a road in front of a futuristic skyline

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.

E-mobility with voestalpine

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.

Steel strip for the drive

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.

The electromobility hype can also be clearly felt at voestalpine Stahl GmbH in Linz.

Stefan K.
Director of Sales, Electrical Industry.

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.

Half transparent rendering of Electric Car with highlighted electrical steel strip
E-mobility relies on electrical steel strip

About sustainability

For decades, voestalpine has been the environmental and efficiency benchmark for the industry. We focus on sustainability out of conviction, not because it is the trend. As part of our sustainability focus, we provide information on which sustainability criteria and standards we follow, on how we are continuously improving our carbon footprint, and about the innovative, sustainable products and solutions we develop for our customers in order to make the world a little better.

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voestalpine AG

Die voestalpine ist ein weltweit führender Stahl- und Technologiekonzern mit kombinierter Werkstoff- und Verarbeitungskompetenz. Die global tätige Unternehmensgruppe verfügt über rund 500 Konzerngesellschaften und -standorte in mehr als 50 Ländern auf allen fünf Kontinenten. Sie notiert seit 1995 an der Wiener Börse. Mit ihren Premium-Produkt- und Systemlösungen zählt sie zu den führenden Partnern der Automobil- und Hausgeräteindustrie sowie der Luftfahrt- und Öl- & Gasindustrie und ist darüber hinaus Weltmarktführer bei Bahninfrastruktursystemen, bei Werkzeugstahl und Spezialprofilen. Die voestalpine bekennt sich zu den globalen Klimazielen und verfolgt mit greentec steel einen klaren Plan zur Dekarbonisierung der Stahlproduktion.