In the evolution of the automotive industry, the impetus from energy conservation and emission reduction policies has rendered automotive lightweighting an inescapable tendency. This article centers on dissecting the historical progression and forthcoming trends of structural lightweighting, lucidly expounding the essential significance of lightweighting across a multitude of sectors. Concurrently, it delves profoundly into the lightweight design methodologies for automotive drum brakes and also anticipates the future prospects of automotive drum brake lightweighting, thereby furnishing the automotive industry with a theoretical underpinning and practical counsel to fulfill the lightweighting objectives.