Aluminium EV Wiring Gains Traction as Copper Premium Persists
The electrification of the global vehicle fleet is driving automakers to find savings across every component in the vehicle stack. One key battleground is aluminium use in EV wiring, which has been reimagined due to changing economics and engineering trade-offs.
Aluminium futures have traded near USD 3,180 per tonne, while copper futures have slipped below USD 6.3 per pound, maintaining a price ratio of approximately 3.5 times since around 2020. This threshold is not temporary but sustained by structural factors including constrained mine supply growth and surging demand from electrification and data centre buildouts.
Copper's premium is also driven by its engineering supremacy in several application categories, such as wiring zones subject to repeated mechanical flexing or high-vibration environments where aluminium's fatigue characteristics create long-term reliability risks. However, the industry has adopted a hybrid conductor strategy, using aluminium for trunk cables and main power circuits, while preserving copper's reliability advantages where they remain irreplaceable.