Australia's Clean Energy Innovation Fund plans to invest in technology developed by Geelong-based Carbon Revolution to improve the lightweighting of automotive vehicles.
Carbon Revolution produces what it says is the world's only mass produced one-piece carbon fiber car wheel. The wheels can be as much as 45% lighter than aluminium wheels, reducing vehicle weight and therefore fuel consumption and carbon emissions.
The Innovation Fund will commit AUS$10 million to Carbon Revolution's AUS$50 million capital raising. The capital raising will support the company as its expands its output from under 6,000 wheels a year to more than 100,000 annually by 2021.
‘Carbon Revolution is now well positioned to deliver on our plan to grow production in line with the growing demand for our technology from around the world,’ said Carbon Revolution CEO Jake Dingle. ‘We now have the means to drive our product and process technologies to the next level of performance, efficiency and scale, as our wheels are fitted to much higher volume vehicle platforms. It will also allow us to appropriately resource our entry into the market for aircraft wheels.’
Carbon Revolution's Geelong-manufactured carbon fiber wheels are already being used in growing volumes in vehicles manufactured by Ford in the US. Carbon Revolution is looking to capitalise on manufacturer interest to extend this reach to more affordable models.
This story is reprinted from material from Carbon Revolution, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
