Wood-based components to reduce the carbon footprint in the body-in-white production

Private transportation will continue to be car-based in the next one to two decades, especially in the global North. Even if vehicles with electric or hydrogen-based drives have an even smaller carbon footprint, the carbon footprint of vehicle body-in-white has not yet been optimized. The publication describes how a large number of projects have been carried out over the last 10 years to integrate wood-based components, which even have a negative carbon footprint, into body-in-white construction. First, the properties of possible wood-based components were characterized and the structure of the components was optimized to meet vehicle requirements. The process chain in vehicle body-in-white construction was then examined and the extent to which wood-based components can be integrated here was investigated. The current status of work on wood-based car body components with advantages and disadvantages is presented and it is shown which challenges still have to be overcome to be able to produce vehicle bodies in a significantly more environmentally friendly way in the future.