It should ultimately be capable of making ultralight cars at automotive scale and cost, halving steel cars' weight and fuel use, improving safety, costing no more per car and saving oil equivalent to finding a Saudi Arabia under Detroit.

CNN: Freeing America from its addiction to oil

Wheel manufacturing operations will continue with an additional investment of 10 million US dollars to allow production of 14-inch, high strength, light weight, steel wheels.

BBC: Ford letter to staff

For instance, the Audi A8 not only has a 372 horsepower engine that provides exhilarating driving characteristics, but it also has an aluminum space frame that lowers vehicle weight considerably versus a steel chassis.

FORBES: Growing Audi Across the Atlantic

Rising automotive sales figures should translate into better shipments even as aluminum continues to replace steel in autos due to its lighter weight.

FORBES: U.S. Steels Results On Monday Should Show A Recovery

Instead of welding several pieces of steel together as reinforcement (which adds weight), those important structural elements are heated to 900 degrees Fahrenheit, then stamped into the desired shape and rapidly cooled almost simultaneously.

FORBES: Magazine Article

But they were panned initially for poor electronics and ill-fitting doors, along with their excessive weight and the tendency of the steel siding to show fingerprints.

FORBES: Life

"We have 300 metallurgists and engineers in the plant whose sole focus is to have that steel plant yield successful new steel alloys to help us make our cost, weight and safety targets, " Krafcik said.

FORBES: On The Cover/Top Stories

Aluminum could reduce the weight of cars dramatically because it weighs roughly half as much as steel.

FORBES: Why Aluminum May Glow Like Gold

Ford has developed a prototype vehicle--the P2000--that replaces steel and cast iron in several key components as part of an effort to reduce the weight of a vehicle by 40%, which would create dramatic fuel efficiencies.

FORBES: Why Aluminum May Glow Like Gold