BMW’s Bets on Carbon Fiber

BMW AG expects to sell only about 10,000 of its new €35,000 electric i3 city car next year. But the car's carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic body represents a huge long-term commitment to the ultra-strong material, Bloomberg News reports.

BMW is using the expensive pricy fibers in the i3 to cut weight and extend the EV's range. But the company also is convinced that it will need the lightweight material to maintain its lineup of large cars and SUVs as fuel economy requirements rise.

"There's no way around making cars light, and steel is reaching its limit," CFO Friedrich Eichiner tells Bloomberg.

Other carmakers agree they will need to incorporate more lightweight alternatives to steel in future vehicles. But none has made such a strong commitment to carbon fiber, Bloomberg says. The news service likens BMW's gamble to the industry's first use of aluminum decades ago in production vehicle structures and bodies.

BMW has strived to reduce the cost of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic by setting up its own production network. It also is using highly automated production techniques to produce the fibers, incorporate them in molded plastic parts and assemble the i3.

It also designed the little EV the company's first attempt to mass-produce a carbon fiber car with a structure that has less than one-third as many parts as a conventional steel architecture.