OREANDA-NEWS. May 19, 2011. Together with other 16 global steelmakers Severstal is to complete Phase 2 of the Future Steel Vehicle program (FSV), being the only Russian participant of this innovation project.

LCV is the most recent addition to the global steel industry’s series of initiatives offering solutions to challenges facing automakers around the world.

In support of FSV’s global launch, WorldAutoSteel, the automotive group of the World Steel Association, announced yesterday the results of a three-year programme to develop fully engineered, steel-intensive designs for electrified vehicles that reduce greenhouse gas emissions over their entire life cycle. The projected steel body structure will reduce mass by more than 35 percent over a benchmark vehicle and reduce total life cycle emissions by nearly 70 percent. This provides steel producers with a significant competitive advantage, if compared with substitute materials for the global automotive industry.

FSV demonstrates ways to increase the fuel efficiency of automobiles and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while improving safety and performance and maintaining affordability—all through the use of state-of-the-art steel.

FSV has added the most advanced steel products and technologies to its portfolio, utilizing more than20 new Advanced High Strength Steel (AHSS) grades, representing materials expected to becommercially available in the 2015 – 2020 technology timeline. The FSV material portfolio includes the newest steel technologies offered by the global industry.

“We are pleased to be part of this important project alongside our international peers. Additionally, Dearborn’s new cold-rolling complex and the automotive hot dip galvanizing line, as well as a proposed new continuous annealing line, will directly support the manufacture of the future steelsin this design. These efforts help maintain strong bonds between Severstal and our customers and assure that steel remains the material of choice for vehicle body structures,” – commented Chris Kristock, Vice President of Advanced Engineering at Severstal North America.