Most Pickups Could Use Aluminum by 2025

The 2015 Ford F-150 is starting an industry trend towards more aluminum in pickup trucks.

Ducker Worldwide recently released a study that shows that as many as 70 percent of pickups could have an aluminum body by 2025. It is expected that each leading automaker will have an aluminum body program in place, with Ford, GM and Fiat Chrysler being the biggest users of aluminum.

Reducing weight is a goal of most automakers to make vehicles more fuel efficient. Last year, vehicles averaged about 350 lbs of aluminum content and that number is expected to rise to nearly 400 lbs by 2015 and 550 lbs by 2025.

There is a concern that aluminum supply won't be able to keep up with demand in the coming years. Right now automakers use 200-million lbs of aluminum each year, but that could increase to nearly four-billion lbs by 2025.

The study also finds that 85 percent of all vehicles will have an aluminum hood by 2025 and almost half of all vehicle doors will be aluminum by the same year. In 2012, 33% of hoods were made of aluminum, and only 6% of doors were made of lightweight material.