With emissions standards set to become much tougher in the next couple of years, automakers have to come up with new ways to reduce vehicle weight and improve fuel consumption, with many of them using lighter materials – such as aluminum – to build various car parts, and cutting the use of steel, which has been the dominant material in cars for a very long time.
Aluminum is considered to be the most convenient alternative to steel at the moment, primarily because it’s much lighter than steel, but it’s not the ideal solution, since there are other materials that are even lighter, and can help reduce vehicle weight much more drastically, but they are not suitable for use in mass market vehicles just yet, due to fact that they are also much more expensive than other materials.
Carbon fiber is one of those materials that could replace the role of steel in the car manufacturing process, as it has the properties that allow car makers to improve vehicle design and make them more fuel efficient, but the high costs associated with the production of carbon fibers prevent it from being used in mass production for the time being. However, more and more car makers are developing concept vehicles made largely out of carbon fiber and are trying to figure out whether a mass-produced carbon fiber vehicle would be economically viable, prompted by the recent success of the BMW i3, which features a carbon fiber body, making it significantly lighter than their counterparts in the electric car market.
With the i3 selling unexpectedly well, demand for carbon fiber for automotive applications is set to go up in the years to come, with the independent research firm Lux Research projecting a 13% market growth, and the fastest growth is expected in the auto industry. According to their analysis, global production of carbon fiber will reach 183,000 tons a year by 2020, and the market value is estimated to grow to $35 billion, compared to $15 billion in 2013. In the auto industry, demand for carbon fiber is projected to grow to $6 billion by the end of the decade, as compared to $2.5 billion in 2012.
North America and Europe are the markets where demand for carbon fiber is expected to grow the fastest, as car makers there are showing increased interest in using this material for making lightweight and durable components, pressed by strict emissions standard that are being enforced globally. BMW will surely be one of the key contributors to a faster adoption of carbon fiber in the auto industry, having already launched the first production vehicle with such an extensive use of carbon fiber, demonstrating that the use of this material should not be limited to racing and high-performance vehicles, which has been the case so far.