Hyundai's CFRP innovation honoured

An award for a Hyundai concept car unveiled at the 2014 Geneva motor show hints at game-changing materials technology for the cars of the future.

The manufacturer received the Jury Prize for its Intrado concept at this year's JEC Europe 2015 conference in Paris this month. Judges settled on the Intrado as the winner for its innovative use of carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) in structural elements central to the car's design.

According to Hyundai, the CFRP frame, comprising tubes formed from the material, saves up to 70 per cent of the weight of a conventional monocoque structure built entirely in steel. Yet there's no loss of strength or rigidity. A central beam provides the backbone by which the drivetrain, seats and the rest of the CFR structure are supported, and the whole structure is wrapped in sheet metal for cosmetic reasons.

Adopting CFRP for vehicle construction is by no means a new idea, but the use of pre-formed tubes reduces the amount of the material lost in off-cuts and lowers the energy consumption required in the manufacturing process, both of which hold clear implications for production efficiency in high-volume manufacturing. According to Hyundai, the Intrado's CFRP frame lends itself to flexible and efficient manufacturing for this reason, something not previously attempted in a commercial automotive production environment.

Hyundai has always said that this type of construction would find its way into vehicle production, and the very fact the CFRP frame has been assembled by a third party contracted by Hyundai – Axon Automotive – bodes well for the future implementation of the idea.

Furthermore, the CFRP frame was constructed by Axon from material supplied by "two of the world's pre-eminent carbon fibre producers – Lotte Chemical and Hyosung Corporation", indicating the car manufacturer may have gone beyond evaluating the new construction method for use in production vehicles. It's possible the manufacturer may already be gearing up to build a new car using the light-weight material in the prescribed way.

The Intrado has already been suggested as a paradigm for a future small SUV to be sold in Australia, and its unique construction process might lead to lower development costs for a Kia version with markedly different sheet metal – given the metal is not load-bearing to the same extent as in a car of conventional construction.

Hyundai claims that the 70 per cent weight reduction in the Intrado's body equates to an overall weight saving of 30 per cent, measured against a conventional car of similar size and specification.