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-fiber parts," said Klaus Drechsler, head of the research effort project. "We'll see a lot more carbon-fiber 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. Currently, the BMW i3 is the world's first mass-produced car to be made primarily out of carbon fibre.
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