The main objective of the overall innovation project is to provide a technical solution, XCORE, for cost-efficient production of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) structural components for the automotive industry. This breakthrough innovation enables Europe to create the next generation, low emission and high safety car.
European climate strategy and policy sets mandatory emission reduction targets for new cars. The most feasible ways to comply to these targets are the development of electric cars, more efficient engines and car weight reduction. The emission reduction targets for 2025 cannot be achieved with engine efficiency measures alone (McKinsey, 2012). Car weight reduction is a sustainable solution for both the short and long term. It reduces fuel consumption and is synergetic with electric and hydrogen vehicles, which carry heavy batteries or hydrogen tanks. Car weight reduction extends the range of electric and hydrogen cars making these vehicles a viable alternative to fossil fuelled cars. The structural components of a car, the chassis, is manufactured from steel. It is widely accepted that CFRP is an ideal lightweight alternative for steel. CFRP has excellent mechanical properties and weighs approximately 40% less than steel. CFRP has a higher impact resistance than steel resulting in safer car structures. CFRP has already become well established in high value markets such as aerospace, military and high value (race) cars. The mainstream automotive industry has not adopted CFRP for the production of structural components (chassis) due to high investment and operational costs. XCORE is an advanced manufacturing technology for the production of structural CFRP components with 30% reduced operational costs and 50% reduced investment costs with respect to conventional CFRP production methods. XCORE thus enables the CFRP market uptake for the mainstream automotive industry. The specific objectives for this feasibility study are to:
Establish the technical feasibility of reducing manufacturing cycle time to ten minutes and fully automate (no manual operations) the production process of XCORE on a commercial scale;
Establish the commercial feasibility by validating the financial and environmental benefits for all stakeholders by substantiating an overall cost reduction (investment and operational) of 40% with respect to conventional CFRP methods and a car chassis weight reduction of 40%;
Form a strong European consortium for demonstration of XCORE in phase 2 and subsequent market launch, consisting of core and fibre material suppliers and two car manufacturing companies;
Further elaborate the preliminary business plan by including a market implementation roadmap. This roadmap includes a detailed plan for a large scale demonstration project.
