To improve the joint quality by reducing the deformation resistance of dual-phase (DP) steels, electric-aided self-piercing riveting (EA-SPR) was conducted in this paper. The effect of current density on the joint forming process, geometry characteristics and mechanical properties of EA-SPR for both combinations of aluminum to steel and steel to aluminum were investigated and compared with the traditional SPR joints. It was found that the riveting force decreased for all the DP steels with different strength grades. The increase amplitude of undercut increased with the elevated strength grades of DP steels. When riveting from aluminum to steel, the tensile-shear and cross-tension strengths of EA-SPR joints could improve up to 13.3% and 15.7% respectively, compared with the traditional SPR joints. For joints riveted from steel to aluminum, the current showed less effect on the tensile-shear strength due to the rivet shank fracture. Nevertheless, the cross-tension strength could still improve by 13.04%.
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