Ferrari and BMW join Tesla in switching to aluminium wiring

Ferrari and BMW have added new models with aluminium wiring, extending a shift that is already moving through the auto industry as copper prices stay elevated and manufacturers hunt for cheaper, lighter materials. JPMorgan said the substitution could affect about 2% of global copper demand this year, a reminder that a design change buried inside a vehicle loom can ripple into mining, refining and sourcing strategy.

Ferrari said it first used aluminium power cables on its 296 hybrid sports car and has since expanded the material to other models, including the Luce, its first electric car. The company said aluminium wiring can cut weight by up to 20%, and Ferrari executive Dario Esposito said the choice was driven by performance rather than cost, even though aluminium was trading at about $3,100 a ton, roughly a quarter of copper’s price.

The Luce, unveiled on May 25, 2026, is Ferrari’s first EV and its first five-seat model. Deliveries are due to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026, and the car is priced at about €550,000 in Europe. That makes the wiring change part of a broader effort to preserve range, trim mass and keep the marque’s high-performance identity intact even as the company enters battery-electric production.

BMW’s path has been more gradual. The company said it first used aluminium conductors in its 1 Series in 2011 and later expanded them into hybrid and battery-electric vehicles, including its sixth-generation eDrive platform launched last year. BMW said that platform uses aluminium cables in both high-voltage and low-voltage systems, showing that the material has moved from an experiment to a standard engineering choice in parts of the brand’s electric architecture.

The timing reflects a market under strain. Copper prices briefly approached $15,000 per metric ton in late January 2026, while JPMorgan’s June outlook said they had briefly surpassed $14,500 a ton and could fall only to about $11,100 to $11,200 in a bearish case. A March 2025 policy paper from China encouraged companies to switch to aluminium, and Chinese EV-parts supplier JONVER said aluminium wiring products rose to about 30% of sales this year from about 20% in 2023. Stellantis has also recently started swapping copper wiring for aluminium, underscoring how a cost and supply problem is pushing automakers toward a material that is easier to source and cheaper to deploy at scale.