On June 30th, the latest industry news showed that after Tesla and several new Chinese car manufacturers first implemented aluminum wire harness applications, Ferrari and BMW, two traditional luxury brands, have officially adopted aluminum wires on a large scale in their new models. This marks a new stage in the automotive industry’s “replacing copper with aluminum” trend that has been brewing for more than 20 years, officially shifting from scattered pilot projects to accelerated penetration throughout the industry.
From the current pace of industry implementation, car companies with different positioning have found clear value points in this round of material replacement. Ferrari has already extensively used aluminum materials in its body, engine, and chassis. Last year, it switched its power cables to aluminum wires on the 296 hybrid sports car, and later covered the entire range of products, including the first pure electric model Luce released last month. Its communication director Dario Esposito clearly stated that aluminum wires can reduce the total weight of the wiring harness by up to 20%, and the core logic of choosing aluminum materials is to adapt the material performance to the overall vehicle handling needs.
BMW had already tested aluminum conductors on its 1 Series models as early as 2011, and now covers the entire high and low voltage system with aluminum wires using the latest eDrive pure electric technology. Industry news shows that Stellantis has also recently followed up on the work of replacing copper wires with aluminum wires.
In the domestic market, brands such as Avita, Xiaopeng, and Xiaomi have all implemented aluminum wire harness applications. The range improvement effect brought by lightweight technology perfectly meets the core requirements of pure electric vehicles. At the same time, in the fierce new energy price war environment in China, aluminum wire harness can reduce the comprehensive landing cost by about 20% compared to copper wire harness, providing a key cost buffer space for car companies under pressure on profit margins.
The core driving force of this round of replacement wave comes from the sustained high pressure of copper prices. According to data from the London Metal Exchange, copper prices had previously approached a historical peak of $15000 per ton, and the current spot price is stable at about RMB 90000 per ton, while aluminum prices during the same period are only about a quarter of copper prices. The huge price difference greatly highlights the economy of material replacement. The continuous increase in copper demand in the fields of green energy and data centers has led to a supply gap in the global copper market for the next decade, further amplifying the driving force for automotive companies to promote material substitution.
However, the industry generally maintains a rational understanding that the conductivity efficiency of aluminum is still lower than that of copper. In some scenarios with extremely high requirements for conductivity and heat dissipation, copper wire still has irreplaceability. At the same time, issues such as high energy consumption in aluminum production and regional tariff differences are also practical factors that car companies need to weigh when promoting replacement. JPMorgan estimates that by 2025, the demand for copper replaced by aluminum will account for about 2% of the global total demand. If the price difference continues to widen in the future, this proportion is expected to increase to 6% by 2030. The follow-up of more car companies will rapidly increase the industry penetration rate of aluminum wire harnesses.
Post time: Jul-06-2026