Alcoa-Audi aluminum vehicle development partnership

Ten-year development cycle for all-aluminum auto body. Used to make the point that aluminum vehicles are technically feasible but economically marginal at consumer price points.

Any fool can build a hundred-thousand-dollar aluminum car if they want to invest the time and effort. It only took Alcoa and Audi about 10 years to develop all the processes to make an all-aluminum auto body. But people did it in the 1930s, only they didn't do it for a hundred thousand dollars. It was Andrew Mellon of Mellon Bank, and he was on the board of Alcoa, and he had more money than most of the other people in Pittsburgh combined. He wanted an aluminum car, so he didn't care what he paid for it. We know how to join aluminum, but...