Sustainable Product
Winner - Class 8: Nikola Corporation
Nikola Tre FCEV – The First Production Hydrogen-Electric Class 8 Truck in the U.S.
Winner - Passenger Vehicle: Polestar
Polestar 2 MY24
Runner-Up: Lucid Motors
Lucid Air Sedan
Great Minds Think Light: The Altair Enlighten Award
The automotive industry's only award dedicated to lightweighting and sustainability celebrates a decade of innovation.
The Altair Enlighten Award honors the greatest sustainability and lightweighting advancements that successfully reduce carbon footprint, mitigate water and energy consumption, and leverage material reuse and recycling efforts. An award that garners interest from industry, engineering, policymakers, educators, students, and the public alike, the Enlighten Award showcases the latest and greatest technology innovations dedicated to sustainability.
The Altair Enlighten Award is presented annually in conjunction with the Center for Automotive Research (CAR). This year's Award will be presented on August 1, 2023.
Our Timeline
2023 Award Categories
For detailed information about this year's award winners, click on the category titles linked below.
Sustainable Process
Winner: ArcelorMittal
Use of Biomass for Carbon Neutral Steelmaking at ArcelorMittal
Runner-Up: Brose Antriebstechnik GmbH I Co. Kommanditgesellschaft, Berlin
Reman-Drive - A Remanufactured Drive
Unit of Brose E-bike
Honorable Mention: Kasai Kogyo Co. Ltd.
Kasai Hi-Papia (KHP), Kasai Original Sustainable Material
Module Lightweighting
Winner: Toyota I Adient I Multimatic
IsoDynamic Seat – Accra® SuperStructure
Runner-Up: Nemak
BMW E-Bracket Made by Nemak
Enabling Technology
Winner: Toyota I BASF Corp. I US Farathane
World’s First Adoption of Resin Frame for ISO-Dynamic Seat
Runner-Up: NIO
HPDC Material and Processing Methods Enable Efficient Structural Design
Future of Lightweighting
Winner: Marelli
Lightweight Urethane for Interior Products
Runner-Up: Solvay Specialty Polymers
Ajedium™ PEEK Slot Liners
Honorable Mention: Michigan Technological University for Auto/Steel Partnership
Steel E-Motive Side Closure Mechanism
Honorable Mention: WorldAutoSteel I Ricardo plc
Steel Body Structures for Fully Autonomous Vehicles
NEW! Responsible AI
Winner: Volteras
A Novel Way to Connect the Electric Vehicle Ecosystem Together
2022 Altair Enlighten Award Winners
Every organization that wins the Enlighten Award joins a distinguished, trailblazing club. Last year's winners - Ford, Toyota, BASF, L&L Products, Shiloh Industries, General Motors, McMaster University, and Nemak – are among the latest organizations to showcase the future of vehicle lightweighting and sustainability.
You can see a complete list of previous winners here.
Interested in the Altair Enlighten Award?
Sign up for UpdatesPast Participants
“Altair is very well known, and this is a very well known award. We are very excited about the business impact. When I looked at the competitors for it, there were some amazing technologies that were included as well, so we expect this will help spread the word for what we are doing.”
– Craig Renneker | VP, Driveline Product Engineering, AAM -
“Taking the Altair Enlighten Award in the full vehicle category for the Portofino BIW is a fantastic result for Ferrari.”
– Michael Leiters | CTO, Ferrari -
“The Enlighten Award is extremely important to Ford Motor Company. This award is going to strengthen us - it shows that we are really a player in this field.”
– Donna Dickson | Chief Program Engineer, Mustang Mach-E, Ford Motor Company -
“Our entire development team is honored to receive this coveted award.”
– JP Flaharty | Executive Program Manager at Toyota Motor North America Research & Development -
Our Partners
Highlighting the organizations who make the Enlighten Award possible.
Our 2023 Judges
Judging is conducted by an independent panel of judges, led by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR). CAR chairs the group of recognized industry experts to select the winning entries in all the categories.
Anant Agarwal
Nissan
Dr. Sarma S R Akella
Mahindra & Mahindra
Professor Harvey Bell
University of Michigan
Brian Brothers
Altair
Josh Brugeman
Fresh Coast Climate Solutions
Vanessa Eriksson
Zenseact
Ryan Gehm
SAE International
Sean Lang
Altair
Sanjiv Mantri
Tata Motors
Dr. Deborah Mielewski
Dione Solutions
Dr. Saravanan N
Ashok Leyland
Gina-Marie Oliver
American Chemistry Council
Dr. Seshanka Palukuri
Greenko Group
Dr. K. Venkatesh Prasad (Prasad)
Center for Automotive Research
Chris Theodore
Theodore & Associates
Dr. Frank Zhao
Tsinghua University