Abstract:

With the global automotive industry transitioning toward electrification and intelligence, and with the continuous advancement of vehicle safety assessment systems, automotive body safety technologies are evolving from traditional passive safety concepts to a comprehensive and systematic safety framework integrating active and passive safety, intelligence and information security, and low-carbon safety. This paper reviews the development of vehicle crash safety regulations and assessment programs both domestically and internationally. From the perspective of body safety, it summarizes the evolution of automotive materials from conventional steels to advanced high-strength steels (AHSS). Taking Baosteel automotive steel products as the example, the technical characteristics and body applications of all three-generations AHSS is introduced. Furthermore, from the perspective of advanced manufacturing technologies such as forming and joining, the critical role of synergistic innovation between material properties and manufacturing processes in enhancing vehicle safety performance is discussed. On this basis, Baosteel's “SMARTeX” safety innovation practice is introduced, which establishes a comprehensive vehicle body safety solution featuring a three-layer, seven-dimensional framework encompassing body-in-white (BIW), assemblies, components, joining, corrosion protection, digital intelligence, and low-carbon safety. Finally, the paper provides perspectives and discussions on the future development of vehicle body safety technologies, emphasizing that the realization of a safe vehicle body relies on the combined intelligence of structural design and material application. Material innovation plays a vital supporting role in body safety and overall vehicle safety development, as well as in the coordinated advancement of high safety, lightweighting, and low-carbonization within the automotive industry.

Key words: automotive safety, passive safety, body-in-white (BIW) materials, advanced high strength steel (AHSS), new energy vehicles (NEVs) integrated solution