According to a report by Automotive News Europe, the future in which carbon-fibre will be employed in mass-produced cars could come sooner rather than later. MAI Carbon Cluster Management GmbH – a materials development group that BMW is partnered with, is working to reduce production costs by up to 90%.
“We’ve certainly reached a halfway point on our cost-cutting target for suitable carbon-fibre parts,” said Klaus Drechsler, head of the research effort project. “We’ll see a lot more carbon-fibre use in the next generation of cars.”
Around 70 companies are reported to be backing MAI in this project, with BMW and Audi amongst them. Companies are actively looking to replace metal in their products with carbon-fibre as the miracle material is said to be much lighter and at the same time proving to be much stronger.
Currently, carbon-fibre is only employed in limited quantities as it costs as much as $20 per kilogram as opposed to steel, which is priced at around $1. The BMW i3 is the world’s first mass-produced car to be made primarily out of carbon-fibre.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Carbon Fibre : As strong but lighter than steel, and will shatter into pieces on accident …
do more research about carbon fibre material….
if u dont like to read…. then go to you tube….
Well it is up to the design and how yo bond the material. In F1, the nose part will shattered into pieces as a way to transfer and release the impact energy. It also can be design to be withstand high impact such as the monocoque chasis.
Do you understand the physics of carbon fibre and steel?
Yes, on their limit, steel will bend and CF will shutter/broken. But the limit of CF is far further than steel’s.
Therefore CF is still multiple times stronger than steel.
just curious – if you get involved in an accident – won’t the carbon fibre panel crack and need to be replaced completely as opposed to metal which can be knocked back into shape (albeit not perfectly)?
Yup.
Could be even more expensive to replace.
Unlikely it would be used on exterior panels for mass production cars. At most, it would be used on “unlikely to crash” places, like roof panel, interior bits, and maybe engine part casings. I think aluminium or high-tensile steel would continue for yet another few years more.
Actually, no, you are wrong.
In today’s high tech cars, many use fibre glass and aluminium panels, with aluminium or steel shell. The thing with aluminium and fibre glass panels is that in the case of fibre glass, if it cracks, you can’t patch up, while on aluminium, if you “knock” it back, it does come back to the same shape as it was stamped in the factory.
As for carbon fibre, what they would end up doing is like the i3, plastic bumper, fender and panels, but the core of it is carbon fibre, so instead of an aluminium shell, it is carbon fibre. The benefit is that in a severe accident, while it will still hold it’s shape, if there is a need to replace a bent part like near the crumple zones, all they have to do is cut and paste a new one and there is no difference to the structural integrity. This is the opposite of metal where if you do a cut and joint, you reduce the structural integrity.
BMW quotes the i3 (surprisingly) costs no more to repair than what it costs to fix up a 1 series for the same damage.
yeaa right..
Carbon Fibre will always remain exotic items in terms of cost compared to steel or aluminum..
It’s not wrong, its just a humble opinion.
After some checking with some outlets for quotations, I think its going quite impossible to quote same price of fixing CF vs aluminium, like you are suggesting.
120i door replacement is already = RM1.5K+
i3 CF-type door replacement is = RM1.5K??
No way josé! I don’t think so.
Also, in a severe accident, I think the CF shell is as good as scrap. No way a world-class manufacturer like BMW would try to rescue a shell like that.
The mobile version of this website has a floating red smiley that inhibits d comment section on my android phone, z1 i wonder if anyoe else has d same problem,
Anyway this is good news for everyone and looking forward to see dramatic crashes on our roads
This news made my day, keep it up.
It is possible, that the production cost of carbon fibre body parts could be further reduced in the near future (BUT OF COURSE NOT THE HIGHLY OPTIMISTIC 90%!!).
I’m very curious to see how BWW i3’s crash test in slow motion, how the carbon fibre debris shatters and if it poses any harm to occupants
Actually from what I’ve read it does pose harm to occupants. The dust that is created as a result should by no means be breathed in. Could be hard to avoid though.
Even after 90% reduction, it is twice the price of steel… (20*0.9=2)
Are you comparing steel to carbon fiber by volume or by mass?. Let’s not forget that Aluminum is also more expensive than steel, and yet it too is becoming more commonplace on automobiles.
Oops! My bad, Just saw the comparision, it is by mass. Nevermind…
Buit 10kg of carbon fibre can probably build 3-4 doors while a single steel door would have weighted more than 10kg.
cheaper super cars coming? :P
The production cost comparision of Carbon Fiber vs Steel can be misleading. One of the primary reasons for replacing steel components with Aluminum or Carbon Fiber is that for the same given specifications (tensile strength, flexibility or rigidity, etc) the non-steel components will weigh less.
So, say the weight of the Carbon Fiber component is half that of the steel component. Then if we apply the cost per kilogram, even if the cost of the steel is half that of the Carbon Fiber, the price ends up being the same since the carbon fiber component weighs half that of the steel component.
Of course, this is not a good comparision as it does not take into account the differences in manufacturing processes for Steel and Carbon Fiber. After all that the cost of the Carbon Fiber component might actually be within the same price range as the steel component. But lighter… Much lighter… if they end up reducing the production cost by 90%.
Is there a company in Malaysia that produces carbon fibre?
As far as I remember Proton once produced carbon fibre bicycles (Proton T-Bolt or something like that)?
None in Malaysia, for automotive segment, as far as I know. Maybe just on a small scale. If it reaches a critical mass, perhaps one day soon we have local manufacturers supplying chassis and body parts for automotive manufacturers in Malaysia.
imagine if an axia or iris made purely from carbon fibre. we’ll be getting mileage like 35km/l or something like that..because the car weight is drastically reduced by half.that would be awesome.
In the future commenter in Paultan cannot complained anymore car part looks plasticky coz they’re actually made from plastic..