paulsweet good conductor, and the cost was reasonable, especially compared to silver which is an even better conductor.
Yes, silver is a better conductor, but aside from silver plating RF wiring, it isn’t used much because pure silver would be prohibitively expensive, illustrating that cost can easily override other attributes.
paulsweet Hopefully auto engineers have overcome aluminum’s problems.
Some links had detailed info on the various solutions employed by makers to get around the issues seen with aluminium wiring, and given that I see no mention of vehicle fires due to aluminium wiring, I tend to think that the solutions worked.
As for what is going to get replaced – high current cables and bus-bars are the low-hanging fruits so they’ll start with those. Medium current wiring (i.e. to power window motor, etc.) likely to follow. However, low or negligible current wiring (i.e. anything lass than 20 - 24 gauge) probably stay copper since the savings at those sizes could be minimal or non-existent.