Knowledge

Why aren’t car windshields made out of transparent aluminum?

When I read the question, my first impulse was to say “price.” But I didn’t really know how much aluminium oxynitride costs; that was just a hunch.

So I did some Googling.

It’s remarkably difficult to find prices. The handful of manufacturers I found all say “call for pricing,” which is usually a sign that the cost is going to be eye-watering.

And man, is it ever. Seriously, I had no idea.

I eventually found an article that suggested a price. I did a quick lookup for the size of a car’s windshield, using a Chevy Cruze as a representative example, and…

Yep. Cost.

How much?

A rough spitball based on the article I found suggests that a transparent aluminum windshield for a Chevy Cruze would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of…

$34,500.00

Thirty-four thousand, five hundred dollars.

Just for the windshield. In a car that sells for roughly $18,000.

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