Volkswagen Group wins Swedish Steel Prize for Press-Hardening Process

Volkswagen Group has won the 2025 Swedish Steel Prize for its press-hardening process known as Sibora. The process opens up new possibilities when optimizing safety components for improved crash performance, according to officials from SSAB, the Nordic-based steel maker that awards the prize. 

”With its holistic approach, the Volkswagen Group and its partners have developed a press-hardening process to obtain different high-strength and high-ductility properties out of one single steel alloy,” says Eva Petursson, chair of the Swedish Steel Prize jury and head of SSAB’s research and innovation. “Its patented method will provide unique advantages when optimizing future car-body structures, in terms of weight and performance and with an unshakable focus on safety.” 

The largest automobile manufacturer in Europe, Volkswagen Group aims to become carbon neutral by 2050. Using less material for construction and putting a lighter car on the road is central to reaching this goal.

Typically, to combine different properties in one car component, such as particular zones of optimized strength and zones of optimized crash-energy absorption, multiple materials must be welded together. But with the groundbreaking method developed by Dr. Ansgar Hatscher and his team at Volkswagen, these specific properties can be achieved using one single sheet of press-hardening steel. The Sibora alloy concept simultaneously results in high strength and improved ductility, and the three-step process can be adjusted to achieve different properties in different areas of the component.

Technologies: Materials

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