Major cities worldwide are grappling with increased vehicle congestion, environmental pollution, and spatial congestion due to urbanization, leading to emerging societal demands for climate change and transportation equity.

• Megacities including London and Chicago experience over 100 hours wasted annually due to road congestion, and road and parking infrastructure occupy a significant portion of urban areas, resulting in reduced citizen convenience.

• Efforts are being made to achieve carbon neutrality through the transition to electric vehicles and reduce inequality related to vulnerable populations, including the seniors, and income disparities.

Urban mobility is pursuing the future city concept such as complete streets and 15-minute cities, with core values of safety, accessibility, efficiency, sustainability, and innovation.

• Moving away from the vehicle-centric urban design of the past to complete streets where multiple modes of transportation share equal responsibility for urban mobility.

• Creating multi-nucleated and block-based communities through the dispersion of urban functions, building mobility hubs where various means intersect, and introducing eco-friendly transportation.

The diversification of transportation modes such as micromobility, UAM, hyperloop, etc., enables more flexible operation of the urban mobility environment through technological advancements.

• Incorporating smart city construction with sensor and data analytics technology for real-time road information management and control, evolving toward seamless transportation network connections through the introduction of MaaS.

With the evolution of urban mobility, changes in car design are expected, necessitating adaptation from material companies to align with the trends of electrification and autonomous driving.

• (Development of Body Reinforcement Materials) Automakers have developed electric vehicle-specific platforms, such as GM Ultium, VW MEB, and Hyundai-Kia e-GMP, and actively introduced solutions like ultra-high-strength steel sheets for the protection of motor and battery packs, roll forming materials for aluminum extrusions, and the development of iron-plastic composite materials for lightweighting and cost-effectiveness, in order to establish a presence in the initial market.

• (Materials for Emerging Mobility) In anticipation of the widespread adoption of autonomous driving technology, material development is required to prepare for new modes of transportation such as modular/1-box type robot shuttles. World Auto Steel, the automotive group of the World Steel Association, is responding to urban autonomous driving with Steel E-Motive (SEM).

• (Exploration of New Markets) Entry into emerging material markets such as electrical steel sheets for drive motor cores, materials for battery packs, and battery cell cans is necessary to capture new markets.