Since the fuel efficiency of vehicle has become one of the big issues due to environmental pollution problems, many studies have been conducted on various methods such as improving powertrain performance and aerodynamic performance, reducing the weight of the vehicle and so on. There have been many new attempts to reduce weight but mostly about improving material property. In the case of vehicles sharing the same platform, the weight and cost of vehicle are mainly changed by the exterior styling. But, there is no solution to control the exterior styling in terms of the weight and cost of vehicle, yet.
The purpose of this study is to find the way to save the weight and cost of vehicle while achieving the various performance and requirements of vehicle (safety, aerodynamics, driver’s visibility and so on) from exterior styling point of view. We focused on the weight difference of the vehicles that shared the platform and were same overall dimensions. We analyzed vehicle’s components that make up the exterior design and classified them by materials. Because each part is different in material and has a different specific gravity, depending on how large area each part occupies in the exterior design, the exterior styling can affect the total weight of vehicle. Then we found correlations between weight, cost and styling and parameters to control these. Also in order to consider the performance and requirements of vehicle, the relationship between styling parameters and those was analyzed. From the results, the method is proposed to control the weight and cost of vehicle by managing the total area of exterior surface and the area ratio of parts in the styling. In the future, this approach will be available for the exterior design optimization.