BMW’s Big Gamble in Carbon Fiber

BMW AG aims to sell a relatively modest 10,000 of its new $47,000 electric i3 city car next year. But the car's carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic body signals a huge bet by the carmaker on the future of the ultra-strong material, Bloomberg News reports.

BMW decided to use the pricy fibers in the i3 to 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 the news service. The company spent more than $500 million to prepare its car plant in Leipzig, Germany, to build the i3 and other "i" electrified vehicles.

Other carmakers agree they will need to incorporate more lightweight alternatives to steel. 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 and developing highly automated production techniques.

It also designed the i3 the company's first attempt to mass-produce a carbon fiber car with a structure that has less than one-third many parts as a conventional steel architecture. The i3 debuts in the Germany market this week and will be introduced in the U.S. and China in early 2014.