BMW จะทำตัวถังคาร์บอนตาม Road Bike เพื่อความเบาจัด เอามาจากสำนักข่าวบรูมเบอร์กครับ

[prayoonko]

เห็นว่าน่าสนใจ เลยเอามาให้อ่านกันครับ
BMW บอกว่า ถึงแม้ว่าราคา carbon จะแพงกว่า steel ถึง 20เท่าก็ตาม แต่วัสดุ carbon จะช่วยลดน้ำหนักรถ electric car ลงมาก (เบากว่า steel 50%)


BMW Carbon Lets Vehicles Follow Bicycle Road to Lightness: Cars
2011-06-14 22:01:30.0 GMT


By Chris Reiter
June 15 (Bloomberg) -- Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is
spending $100 million to gain an edge on German luxury rivals by
entering the commodities business.
BMW is building its own carbon fiber factory, the first
carmaker to do so, to secure supply of the lightweight material
and lower expenses by refining the production process. Even
though carbon fiber has cost 20 times as much as steel, BMW is
embracing the material to reduce the weight of its electric cars
and counteract the added heft of their batteries.
Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen AG’s Audi have
joined BMW’s pursuit of the material, which is 50 percent
lighter than steel, as they strive to meet tighter environmental
rules. BMW has partnered with SGL Carbon SE, the only Europe-
based producer of the material, to build the plant, prompting VW
to buy 9.9 percent of SGL to ensure its own access. The battle
has made SGL the world’s most expensive carbon-fiber company.
“The capacity to produce carbon fiber isn’t that big, so
manufacturers are looking to secure access,” said Robert
Outram, program manager for automotive chemicals with Frost &
Sullivan in Oxford, England. “There are not many people who do
it well. It’s a long-term strategy play.”
VW’s SGL investment prompted Susanne Klatten, a member of
the Quandt family which is BMW’s largest shareholder, to raise
her SGL holding to 27 percent from 24 percent. The Wiesbaden,
Germany-based company’s price-to-earnings ratio of 43 is double
the value of rivals Toray Industries Inc., Teijin Ltd. and
Hexcel Corp.

Weight Concerns

Weight is a top concern for high-end carmakers. Much of
their profit is generated by big cars, which tend to burn more
fuel than smaller models. Mercedes’s $91,000 S-Class tips the
scales at 4,500 pounds and gets 25 miles per gallon on the
highway, compared with 33 miles per gallon for the 3,300-pound
Toyota Camry. Electric vehicles add further pressure to reduce
weight because of the batteries.
“In electric-mobility, the weight of the car will be a
decisive factor,” BMW Chief Financial Officer Friedrich
Eichiner said. “There is a close correlation between low
vehicle weight and range in electric cars.”
Carmakers have also in the past avoided carbon fiber
because the parts require drying times that aren’t currently
compatible with the pace of assembly lines. Planemakers
including Boeing Co. started using the material much earlier
because they produce at a slower rate and have simpler
structures to form out of the reinforced plastics.
Because of its light weight, the cycling industry has been
using carbon fiber since the 1980s. The material helped Greg
LeMond win the Tour de France three times.

BMW Electric Cars

Carbon fiber for BMW’s i3 battery-powered city car, due in
2013, and its i8 hybrid sports cars will be made at a factory in
Moses Lake, Washington, about 180 miles east of Seattle. The
plant will start production in the third quarter and will have
an initial capacity to make 1,500 tons of carbon fiber, which
will then be processed into components in Germany.
Daimler is following suit by building a facility in
Esslingen, Germany, which will start producing parts for the
$102,600 SL roadster next year. The joint venture with Tokyo-
based Toray is part of Daimler’s goal of reducing vehicle weight
by 10 percent with each new generation. The company estimates
that trimming a car by 100 kilograms (220 pounds) reduces
carbon-dioxide emissions by eight to 10 grams per kilometer.
Daimler and Toray are investing 825,000 euros ($1.2 million).
Audi, which uses the material in the R8 sports car and RS3
sporty compact, has joined with Voith GmbH to create tools for
mass-producing carbon-fiber components. Voith, in turn, is the
third-largest shareholder of SGL.

Formula One

Until BMW’s push, the use of carbon fiber in the auto
industry was limited to Formula One race cars and exotic high-
performance brands like VW’s Lamborghini and Bugatti. Tata
Motors Ltd.’s Jaguar plans to build the chassis for the 700,000-
pound ($1.15 million) C-X75 supercar out of carbon fiber.
Demand for carbon-fiber components will probably rise nine
fold to $94.1 million by 2017, according to Frost & Sullivan.
Cost will continue to be a hurdle for mainstream adoption.
Carbon fiber costs about $20 a kilogram, according to Frost
& Sullivan. That compares to less than $1 for steel. The
material is also difficult to work with. The fibers need to be
woven into sheets and then hardened, typically with resin. Frost
& Sullivan estimates that manufacturing costs add 70 percent to
the final price of carbon-fiber components.
Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler is taking a more measured
approach to carbon fiber and doesn’t see a need to buy a stake
in partner Toray to ward off other manufacturers.

Painful Process

“We get much more out of our concrete joint venture with
them” than being an investor, Chief Financial Officer Bodo
Uebber said in an interview in March.
While the long-term future for carbon-fiber in the auto
industry may be promising, the process of introducing new auto
technology is “painfully slow” and manufacturing parts from
carbon fiber isn’t yet ready for large-scale production, said
Glen Liddy, a London-based analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
“There are cheaper alternatives to make cars more
efficient,” said Liddy, who’s covered SGL for more than a
decade and has an “underweight” rating on the company.
“There’s no need to rush into carbon fiber.”

For Related News and Information:
BMW’s Peer-Product Comparison: BMW GY <Equity> PPC <GO>
SGL’s Top Shareholders: SGL GY <Equity> PHDC1 <GO>
Top transport stories: TRNT <GO>

--Editors: Chad Thomas, Heather Harris

To contact the reporter on this story:
Chris Reiter in Berlin at +49-30-70010-6226 or
creiter2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Chad Thomas at +49-30-70010-6232 or cthomas16@bloomberg.net.