Recycled carbon fibre nonwovens have a significant role to play in BMW’s push for the next generation of smarter cars.
The i3 and i8 electric vehicles which are scheduled to begin series production in 2013 have seen car giant BMW make one of its boldest step-changes in recent history – and as one consequence, it has even become a member of the Bavarian Textile Manufacturers’ Association.
The i3 and i8 – initially referred to as Megacity vehicles – represent BMW’s response to changing needs in the market and the new urban landscape.
“The standard approach to designing a new vehicle is to first go to the designers, then the engineers and then to the production people,” said Joerg Pohlman, managing director of the BMW joint venture SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers, speaking at the 2012 ICS conference at the JEC Composites Show in Paris. “We went the other way in asking production what they would need to build such a car, then back to the engineers to find out what materials they worked with, and finally back to the designers so they knew what they had to work with and what designs were possible”
