| Project Detail |
Today cars are responsible for 12% of the total EU emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas. European climate policy sets mandatory emission reduction targets for new cars. Car weight reduction with a CFRP chassis is an effective measure to reduce fuel consumption, increase passenger safety and extend the operational range of electric and hybrid vehicles. The mainstream automotive industry has not adopted CFRP for chassis production due to the high costs of CFRP production. Conventional CFRP production technologies produce structural components with an average production cost of 140 €/kg. In order to attain a disruptive shift from steel to CFRP within the mainstream automotive industry a maximum production cost of 30 €/kg has to be achieved. The XCORE production technology uses an expanding foam with gas filled thermoplastic microspheres in a heatable closed mould to create the high pressure necessary for curing (consolidating the CFRP face material), while conventional production is based on expensive autoclave or RTM technology. XCORE production technology reduces the CFRP production investment costs, material costs, operational costs, and labour, and will result in a production cost of only 27 €/kg for CFRP structural components. XCORE will initiate a disruptive shift from steel manufactured cars to CFRP manufactured cars, resulting in a European fuel consumption reduction of 1.21 billion litres representing a €1.17 billion cost reduction for car owners and a CO2 emission reduction of 3.0 billion kg/year. The key market is the European car manufacturing industry, which produces 17.3 million vehicles per year complemented with the US and Asian automotive industries. A demonstration is necessary to convince the automotive sector of the added value of the XCORE technology and opens the market for this innovation. For the Phase 2 project Donkervoort has involved key players to execute the demonstration project and develop the market implementation. |
