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Vehicle weight reduction, reduced costs and improved safety performance are the main driving forces behind material selection for automotive applications. High strength steels (HSS) have demonstrated their ability to meet these demands and consequently have been the fastest growing light-weighting material in vehicle structures for the past decade. The evolution in steel technology in recent years has produced new grades of highly formable, advanced high strength steel (AHSS) grades that will continue to meet these automotive demands into the next decade. This paper describes how the remarkable combination of formability, strength, ductility, durability, strain-rate sensitivity and strain hardening characteristics of the AHSS grades enable affordable weight reduction while improving crash safety.