Due to the limitations in individual materials with respect to crash performance, affordability and manufacturability, most analyses conclude that a multi-material approach will dominate future vehicle structure designs, where material for each component is chosen to satisfy locally-required properties. However, the use of lightweight materials in commercial vehicles has been extremely limited, due to the lack of low-cost, high-quality processes for forming and joining these materials. The overall objective for this thrust is to address critical engineering challenges in achieving significant reduction (in the order of 50%) of future vehicle weights by adopting lightweight materials while maintaining functional performance and cost competitiveness.