Building a Better Body - High Strength Steels For over 100 years, steel has been basic to the automotive industry. You'd figure that would mean there isn't much room for improvement, right? Wrong! Photo courtesy of ASM Pictured are rolls of high-strength steels. Metals such as these are the backbone for the auto of the future. Recently the steel industry has developed an optimized automotive steel structure which is 24% lighter, 34% stronger, and $154 less expensive than auto body structures on the road today. Benefits of advanced steels: high crash energy absorption high strength-to-weight ratio can be made using advanced forming techniques available with different coatings (for durability, rust resistance, etc.). Site related questions or comments? Contact crc@tms.org last modified: