Great news for all you carbon fiber junkies out there but I’m sure most of you believed this day was coming, sort of a prophecy coming true I’m sure. A group of Japanese companies that own 70% of the world’s carbon fiber market want to introduce carbon fiber to the everyday car owner.
Such a move would see carbon fiber, which is traditionally suited for more purpose built cars like the BMW M3 (carbon fiber roof), Nissan GTR (Carbon fiber engine and radiator panel) and the Pagani Zonda R (carbon fiber everything), appear in your everyday cars like the Vios, City and probably even the Saga someday. Actually, Toyota has already started work on such cars, the Toyota 1/X Concept car displayed at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show last year employs a carbon fiber reinforced plastic body frame to attain the same interior size as a Toyota Prius but at a third of the weight.
The plan seems like a sure fire on paper and carbon fiber cars do seem very appealing, but it won’t be happening for a very long time, maybe not in our lifetime. According to our good friend Paul, carbon fiber is expensive because of high material and manufacturing cost and the long period of time needed for it to be developed. That and the fact that it requires a lot of energy just to heat and treat the fibers not forgetting that it takes ages for the molding process, you’d be better off beating it into shape.
The long period of time needed to produce carbon fiber is the reason why carbon fiber wont be a mass product for a long time. Imagine the carbon fiber moulding process takes 10 minutes, now imagine the sheet metal stamping that is in use today takes only about a second. With our insatiable hunger for cars these days, the choice is obvious but because we live in a time where petrol prices are incomprehensible, and greener cars are the next big thing, the quest for lighter cars has inevitably set the stage for the dawn of carbon fiber. The only other thing manufacturers have to get around now is the price.
Source: Paul Tan
