BMW is the first to attempt to use carbon fiber as the automaker fights to offset its environmental impact and rescue its brand from potential extinction, Bloomberg reported.
The push to use carbon fiber, which is composed of silky black filaments, "represents the biggest shift in automobile production since at least the 1980s when the first all-aluminum car frames were made," the outlet said.
In the intricate process, hundreds of thousands of fine white strands are stretched, toasted and scorched black to make tougher-than-steel carbon fiber.
BMW will use carbon fiber for the passenger frame of its i3 electric car in the first effort to mass produce a vehicle mostly made from the filaments.
The German automaker began the push for carbon fiber manufacturing about six years ago when CEO Norbert Reithofer researched industry trends and predicted tougher emissions regulations in the future.
"Looking forward to 2020, we saw threats to our business model," Chief Financial Officer Friedrich Eichiner, head of strategic planning at the time, told Bloomberg in an interview.
"We had to find a way to bring models like the 6-Series, 7-Series and X5 into the future."
The i3 is BMW's attempt to live up to its "ultimate driving claim" with a viable electric vehicle. Drivers have avoided electric cars in the past because of their limited range, so manufacturers need to make the vehicles lighter.
That's where carbon fiber comes in--it's the lightest and strongest building material available. But unfortunately for automakers, it's also obscenely expensive, coming in at an estimated $20 per kilogram compared with $1 for steel.
BMW hopes to reduce the cost of a carbon fiber-constructed frame to the same as aluminum in the next seven years. The company's goal is to mass produce the material, something no other carmaker has attempted to do.
"BMW's approach recalls the days of the industrial revolution, when manufacturers started with raw iron ore or located factories near power sources," said Aravind Chander, an analyst with Frost & Sullivan in Chennai. "It's an aggressive approach and still unproven."
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