Carbon roof for VW Golf

Volkswagen has indicated that a material to date reserved for McLarens, Lamborghinis and BMWs is headed into ordinary man’s land.

Offering the strongest suggestion yet that it is developing a carbon-fibre roof option for future performance variants of its new Golf 7, the German giant told US website Edmunds the lightweight material is currently being adapted for use with its volume-selling small car.

The move will cut the car’s weight by an estimated 9-10kg at a time when car-makers are looking to pare ever ounce they can from every model across their fleets.

Much lighter and, in some forms, stronger than steel or aluminium, carbon-fibre reinforced plastics/polymers (CFRP) offer one of the most promising means of advancing the efficiency of engines by reducing the load they have to carry.

To date, CFRP’s moulding and baking costs have restricted its use to rarefied high-performance models – about the lowest point in the market it can currently be found in a structural capacity is in the roof of BMW’s M3.

But growing legislative pressure on European and US auto-makers to rein in CO2 emissions has seen a dramatic rise in R&D investment in recent years in the hope of boosting its viability downmarket.

Volkswagen has said it’s too early to start talking about prices or time to market. But the prospect of seeing carbon-fibre structural members in models like the Golf – which costs about $50,000 here in top-shelf R spec – gives one of the strongest suggestions yet that CFRP has begun on a growth trajectory mooted for some time by analysts.

Among the more recent studies is that of science and technology research agency Lux, released in late 2012. Outlining a sharp rise in new production technologies coming on stream, Lux predicts the global market for CFRP will record compound growth of 13 per cent through the rest of this decade, more than doubling in that time from $US14.6 billion to $36 billion by 2020.

Those new manufacturing methods and the economies of scale commensurate with a hike in volume will see the cost of the material halve from about $US21 to $10 a kg by 2017, the company says.

These may prove conservative estimates if some of the technical problems associated with CFRP’s use are resolved, particularly in connecting it to other materials without compromising its structural integrity.

For example, Volkswagen’s head of R&D, Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, told Edmunds the company is currently working to develop a waterproof jointing system to connect the carbon-fibre roof to the rest of the body and the windscreen.

CFRP is finding increasing prominence in industry announcements. Volvo is testing a promising mechanical hybrid system centred on a carbon-fibre flywheel, while BMW has already made much of its use in its upcoming i3 and i8 EVs. BMW has also announced a joint R&D deal with aircraft and arms giant Boeing.

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