DOE magnesium automotive lightweighting program

DOE has spent tens to hundreds of millions per year over fifty years on magnesium-for-automotive lightweighting. Currently magnesium is used in cast substructure under the dashboard, where it's protected from corrosion.

In fact they do use magnesium under the dashboard, where you can't see the corrosion and where it's protected from the elements in the passenger compartment. Some of the dashboard substructure will be a cast magnesium panel. They also use it in helicopters and other aircraft, because helicopters get two hours of maintenance for every hour of flight. If you're going to check things that often during maintenance anyway, you can use it for aerospace when you need lightweight materials — just a few maintenance issues.