Docol® automotive steels

SSAB innovates advanced high-strength steels for the automotive industry, providing its Docol® AHSS steels and expert resources to automakers so they can meet their lightweighting and crash performance goals. SSAB supplies a large number of standard grades of Docol® high-strength automotive steels — including AHSS, UHSS and gigapascal strengths — with hundreds of variations to meet specific VDA, SAE, EN, JIS, and OEM standards.

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Safe and lightweight

Achieve better BIW crash performance with strong, optimized AHSS profiles, creating both intrusion-free and energy-absorbing structures.

The strongest steel

Increase car structural durability, toughness, and fatigue resistance with high tensile strength steels – up to 2000 MPa UTS.

Formable

Maximize the designs of your safety components – using complex part geometries – confident that our forming simulations will guide you to high repeatability during production.

Excellent welding

Use conventional welding processes to create strong AHSS joints for improved torsional stiffness and car responsiveness.

Economical and sustainable

Replace costly and CO2-intensive aluminum and carbon-fiber composites with some of the most CO2-efficient AHSS steels available today — and on track to becoming fossil-free, already in 2026.

OEM specific

Customized advanced and ultra-high strength steels for your specific automotive applications.

Carbon-neutral steels for cars, already in 2026

Fossil-free steel is SSAB’s name for replacing coking coal with green hydrogen for direct reduction ironmaking – combined with minimizing CO2 emissions for the entire value chain, from mine to AHSS delivery. The first fossil-free steel vehicle already exists. And commercial quantities of automotive AHSS/UHSS steels will become available in 2026.

car door
Gestamp and SSAB in partnership about SSAB Fossil-free steel

SSAB and Gestamp begin partnership in fossil-free steel for automotive components

SSAB has entered an agreement with Spain-based Gestamp, a global tier-one automotive supplier of lightweight and safety components, to deliver fossil-free steel for body-in-white and chassis system products.

Automotive steel resources and insights

Watch automotive webinars

Automotive AHSS Webinars

Explore and discuss topics like AHSS forming simulations, UHSS for EV battery enclosures, and 3rd generation high strength steel as an application-specific problem solver.
Read automotive insights

Articles: steel design, forming and more

Covers the best practices in high strength steel automotive design, 3D forming, stamping, and welding, as well as the unique challenges of EV body-in-white design, fossil-free steel, and mobility trends’ influence on car structures.
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Forming data and AHSS samples

Work with our technical experts early in your design process so we can help you select the best AHSS automotive steels for your forming simulations and sample testing.

Featured automotive steel grades

A proven process for developing automotive AHSS steel solutions

AHSS steels for higher crash protection

As you strive to provide higher levels of crash protection for passenger compartments – and all-new intrusion-free structures for EV battery packs – Docol® can help. For example, we have stimulated scores of AHSS beam designs to find optimized profiles, delivering 2x better crash performance (energy transfer) than square tubes.

 

Lightweighting with Docol® automotive steels

What are your lightweighting goals for a specific automotive safety component? 10% to 20% weight reduction? Creating thinner — and lighter — components using higher strength steels is a major reason for AHSS’s yearly growth in the auto industry.

 

AHSS forming optimized for efficiency and repeatability

From concept, to design, simulation, and validation on your production tools, Docol® experts are with you for your development process for AHSS components. We’ll help you determine the most efficient forming layout – including optimized die materials, die construction, and coatings – for high production quality and parts repeatability.

 

Exceptional weldability of Docol® advanced high strength steels

Achieve strong AHSS welds for increased torsional stiffness and fatigue resistance. We designed even our strongest automotive steels to be used with conventional welding processes, including resistance spot welding, arc, and laser. And we’ll aid in your weld simulations, confirming your proposed AHSS joining processes.

 

Economical and sustainable AHSS automotive solutions

Alternatives to automotive advanced high-strength steels include aluminum and fiber-reinforced composites: both are much more expensive and CO2-intensive, requiring specialized knowledge and equipment to form properly. Both are also more difficult to recycle than AHSS steels.

On the other hand, AHSS automotive steels have a long history of successful problem-solving in mass-produced cars, delivering improved impact protection, significant weight savings, and improved vehicle performance.