BMW is claiming that its ‘Megacity Vehicle’ electrically driven small car will become the world’s first volume-produced car with a passenger cell made from carbon.
The extensive use of carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) is aimed at reducing weight to offset the additional weight associated with an electric motor powertrain and battery.
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BMW’s Megacity Vehicle (MCV) is due to be introduced to the market in 2013 and will be electric motor driven.
“The Megacity Vehicle is a revolutionary automobile. It will be the world’s first volume-produced vehicle with a passenger cell made from carbon. Our LifeDrive architecture is helping us to open a new chapter in automotive lightweight design. Indeed, this concept allows us to practically offset the extra 250 to 350 kilograms of weight typically found in electrically powered vehicles,” says Klaus Draeger, Member of the Board of Management for Development.
“The drive system remains the heartbeat of a car, and that also applies to electric vehicles,” said Draeger.
“Powertrains also remain a core area of expertise of Bayerische Motoren Werke. Electromobility and the hallmark BMW driving pleasure make an excellent match, if you go about things the right way. For this reason we are developing the powertrain for the Megacity Vehicle in-house – that includes the electric motor, the power electronics and the battery system.”
BMW says that the electrification of a vehicle requires new concepts in vehicle architecture and body construction and that with the ‘LifeDrive’ concept, the BMW engineers are developing the car’s architecture from scratch ‘and adapting it to the demands and conditions of future mobility’.
The goal, says BMW, is to offset the additional weight of an electric vehicle – typically 250 to 350 kilograms. To this end, the BMW Group is focusing on the use of high-tech material carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP).
The LifeDrive concept consists of two horizontally separated, independent modules. The Drive module integrates the battery, drive system and structural and crash functions into a single construction within the chassis. Its partner, the Life module, consists primarily of a high-strength and extremely lightweight passenger cell made from CFRP. BMW adds that the new vehicle architecture ‘opens the door to totally new production processes which are both simpler and more flexible, and use less energy’.
BMW says that electric vehicles not only provide a zero-local-emission and low-noise form of propulsion, but ‘that their ability to deliver a totally new and extremely agile driving experience is also impressive’.
It says the new architecture of the MCV also ‘gives the vehicle designers additional freedom when it comes to creating a new aesthetic for sustainable urban mobility solutions’.
There is one drawback with utilising lightweight carbon: the cost. A kilogram of carbon currently costs EUR15, which is 15 times pricier than a kilogram of steel. BMW hopes to reduce the price of carbon to EUR 7, Financial Times Deutschland reported.
See also: COMMENT: BMW opts to go-it-alone
