But the DoE and USCAR are more interested in "automotive grade" carbon fibre, which would allow automakers to reduce overall vehicle weight by 25 to
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| Carbon fibre would make fuel cell vehicles, such as GM's HiWire, much more efficient. (Photo: General Motors of Canada) |
And the weight of today's vehicles is a real problem. Remember when two strong men could lift a Mini's rear half or a VW Beetle's front? Try that on today's equivalent models and, well, it just won't happen. Now, compact cars weigh as much as midsize models of the past.
A budget of $195 million USD has been allocated to the five year program, with the investment split evenly between the DoE's FreedomCAR program and USCAR's U.S. Automotive Materials Partnership (USAMP).
The premise for the initiative is that an estimated seven percent fuel savings
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| Performance cars, such as Ford's new Mustang, could be made much lighter and therefore more exciting to drive if affordable carbon fibre was used extensively throughout. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
The resulting automotive grade carbon fibre material would need to be easily combined with thermoset or thermoplastic matrices in order to fabricate cost-competitive automotive structures. A report states that researchers will also work to develop new alloys of aluminum, magnesium and titanium, for use in frame, body, powertrain and engine components.
Given the fact that automotive manufacturers have already learned that vehicle weights can be reduced by as much as 15 to 25 percent by the use of high-strength steel, DoE and USCAR's expectations of a 25 to 70 reduction in vehicle curb weights when incorporating carbon fibre components seems reasonable.
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