BMW Closing In On Bringing Carbon-Fibre Wheels To Market

BMW is planning a rollout of the carbon-fibre technologies developed during the BMW i3 and i8 project, and the centerpiece is a set of ultra-light, fully carbon fibre rims.

It is the brainchild of BMW’s lightweight construction manager, Franz Storkenmaier. After developing a new system of industrializing carbon fibre for BMW’s i sub-brand, he has now been tasked for finding other uses for its patents. Among the things his team has found are a full carbon fibre steering wheel, a one-piece carbon fibre propeller shaft for the BMW X5 and a new carbon-plastic compound that is light and strong, made from i3 production waste.
 

BMWm4 - 2/20/2014 2:27:00 PM

+4 Boost

that would be awesome and a great weight savings

Yonder7 - 2/20/2014 2:36:02 PM

+4 Boost

Excellent ....

pepito66 - 2/20/2014 6:05:46 PM

+3 Boost

BMW as always, pure innovation , sounds great.

7msynthetic - 2/20/2014 6:55:21 PM

+2 Boost

Get ready for some serious insurance premiums.

t_bone - 2/20/2014 8:02:03 PM

+2 Boost

Appealing and terrifying at the same time.

MattDarringer - 2/20/2014 8:18:04 PM

0 Boost

Typical Germans...engineering a "solution" to a non-existent problem. The excess weight in an X6 is not in the wheels. #idiocy

iamdabest1 - 2/21/2014 12:23:40 PM

+1 Boost

definitely gotta get the wheel and tire protection with these rims..