"The team started from scratch and reimagined the way we think about the design, development and material-use of a door architecture," said Swamy Kotagiri, Chief Technology Officer, Magna International. "Building on our significant expertise in lightweighting from previous DOE projects, the team leveraged our broad product-development expertise and tackled this challenge in a cost-effective manner while meeting safety, durability and functionality requirements."

A key innovation associated with the development of the ultralight door includes integration of Magna's SmartLatch™ electronic latch system. This eliminated the need for mechanical hardware and enabled the development of a unique carrier module with integrated glass guides and lift capability of a lightweight hybrid glass laminate, an industry first.

The door-in-white assembly makes extensive use of aluminum, which achieves approximately half of the total mass reduction of the door assembly. Overall, the project makes use of materials readily available today that can easily be made using existing manufacturing processes, without a significant increase in production costs or changes in body-shop infrastructure.

END