Report: BMW expanding carbon fiber factory

For the 2nd time in less than a year, BMW has proclaimed plans to expand their carbon fiber plant in Moses Lake, Washington.

The plant, that is jointly-operated with SGL Automotive, can receive a $200 (€145.3) million investment on prime the of $100 (€72.6) million investment that was proclaimed in Feb.

The enlargement is predicted to be completed in early 2015 and it’ll create the Moses Lake mill the world’s largest carbon fiber plant.

The plant presently has 2 production lines that change it to provide regarding 3,000 plenty of carbon fiber annually. 2 additional production lines are going to be additional this summer and also the latest spherical of investments can bring the full up to 6. If everything goes in keeping with set up, the plant are going to be able to manufacture around 9,000 plenty of carbon fiber per annum.

According to Dr. Klaus Draeger, BMW’s member for getting and also the provider Network, “CFRP could be a key material for the automotive trade of the 21st century. In our endeavor to spot more and more light-weight materials so as to scale back a vehicle’s weight and so its fuel consumption and carbon emissions, this material plays an important role.” Draeger mention, that “As a part of an intelligent mixture of materials, we are going to apply carbon conjointly on the far side our BMW i and BMW M models within the future.”

While the corporate was coy on specifics, BMW Chairman Norbert Reithofer recently confirmed the 2015 7-Series can feature “intelligent composite construction” that utilizes carbon fiber. He conjointly told the light-weight material can change the model to line an “example in terms of weight reduction.”