A quick overview: In 1948
A quick overview: In 1948 the Jaguar XK120 began as a wood-frame (ash) and aluminum body car. In 1963 Jaguar built 12 special E series cars ( I think they were called XKE lightweights) from primarily aluminum. The 1988 XJ220 was done in basically all aluminum. The chassis of the XJ220 was done in partnership with the aluminum producer Alcan using aluminum. This was a big deal in the development of aluminum cars since bringing in the material supplier as a development partner is always a critical step forward towards higher volume car production. This car was a low volume supercar built annually until about the mid '90s and about 300 were made. It is here that the Ford/Jaguar aluminum R&D overlap occurs. Ford acquired Jaguar in 1989 and sold it in 2008. During this period the development of aluminum production cars by Jaguar was studied in earnest. The current Jaguars that use mostly aluminum took well over a decade of development. That intellectual property, and many of the actual people are employed by Ford now. According to Pete Reyes the Jaguar/Land Rover folks already knew the most important things needed for the F-150 to become a reality. The F-150 in aluminum started in 2008 and won't be sold until nearly 2015, a 7 year development process for one model update - although a hugely important one.