Now, that’s a rarity. We’ve come to expect a lot of creature comforts when we go from point A to point B.

Those features – powerful engines, increased safety, roominess, better climate control and less road noise – usually add weight to our vehicles. We also want better gas mileage. And governments are taking measures to ensure good air quality by enacting regulations to limit emissions. That’s a big challenge for the transportation industry – continually increasing efficiency while keeping our cars, trucks and planes safe and comfy.

Transportation manufacturers are keying in on solutions: making engines more efficient, implementing electrification, optimizing aerodynamics of vehicle bodies and lowering the weight of components in all our modes of transportation.

As more people gather in urban centers, and as more of them drive cars, there is a bigger push by governments to offset the impacts that come with those changes. One overriding concern is air quality and managing climate risk, with a primary focus on reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the transportation sector is responsible for 27 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. and about 14 percent globally. Many governments are passing legislation to offset climate risk by reducing emissions and greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, or CO2 – which causes 63 percent of global warming issues. The Paris Agreement is an international agreement reached in 2015 to address the threat of global climate change. Countries agreed to set their own targets for reducing carbon emissions.

Nine global governments – Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and the United States – have set or plan to set emission standards for vehicles. This represents about 80 percent of vehicles currently being sold around the world.

The European Union set a target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions across all sectors, including transportation, from 1990 to 2020 by 20 percent and by 40 percent by 2030.

The U.S. had been pushing to make passenger vehicles more fuel efficient for decades, largely to reduce dependence on oil imports. The U.S. corporate average fuel economy – or CAFE – standards were originally enacted in 1975. Congress updated the U.S. fuel economy regulations in 2007.

And some countries are planning to shoot for zero emissions on new cars. More than a dozen countries and several U.S. states have set targets for selling electric cars. Norway, viewed as a leader in this area, aspires to sell only zero-emissions passenger cars by 2025 and India hopes to sell only electric cars by the year 2030.

One answer to making cars more energy efficient is to make them lighter weight. Accelerating a light vehicle takes less energy than accelerating a heavy one, so lightweight materials are a clear solution. According to the U.S. Department of Energy Vehicle Technology Office, a 10 percent reduction in vehicle weight can result in a 6 to 8 percent improvement in fuel economy. Whether cars are powered by gas or electricity, or any other energy source, there will be a need for efficiency and lightweight materials.

How will transportation manufacturers do it? How will they balance creating low-emission, fuel-efficient lightweight vehicles with the increasing expectations of consumers for a safe, comfortable and affordable vehicle? By finding new ways to create them.

Part of the answer is leveraging new technology and using different materials in the body structure. Engineers are constantly searching for the best properties like strength, stiffness, and ease of molding, while taking into consideration cost, safety and ease of manufacturing. They have been limiting their use of high-strength steel, reserving it for parts like bumpers and reinforcing beams. Original equipment manufacturers – or OEMs – use lighter-weight materials like aluminum, steel alloys, plastics and carbon fiber throughout the vehicle.