Tesla Motors bodyman explains carbon fiber
Barrie Dickinson is director of body engineering at Tesla Motors. In his latest blog posted yesterday, Dickinson explains the process of manufacturing the roadster's carbon fiber body.
Tesla chose carbon fiber for its strength and light mass. However, the material is expensive to produce. I had hoped Dickinson would have explained more of the decision-making process and what the alternatives were, but carbon fiber is the most appropriate choice for this application. Again, the only downside is the cost, and we all want more people, not fewer, driving electric vehicles.
Tesla is keeping the cost down a little by using a Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) process in place of the traditional autoclave curing. This is a type of closed-mold process that requires significant tooling but can produce body panels quickly and to the required thickness. Plus, the panels come out of the mold already primed for paint.
The one big hurdle Tesla had to overcome was their sources of carbon fiber cloth were drying up. Apparently the demand in the aerospace industry is skyrocketing. But persistence paid off and the Tesla is nearing production.
Related:
[Source: Barrie Dickinson / Tesla Motors]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
siry 7:26PM (2/18/2007)
Thanks for the post. Can you include a link to the Tesla Corporate Blog so your readers can get to it easily. I have included it here:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/02/16/tesla-bodyman-explains-carbon-fiber/
As for your comment on cost and the decision process - I can address that. The Tesla Roadster was envisioned from the start to be a high end car. This makes sense because the only way to be able to afford all the R&D we have spent on engineering the powertrain is to sell our first cars at a high price point to customers who want a top end vehicle. Therefore, the overall decision making process relates to what customers would expect in a high end vehicle, it does not relate to how we can make the vehicle as cheap as can be.
In my opinion it is critical for Tesla to produce the high end roadtsre as our first car for another reason - to change the broadly held perception by the public that EVs are necessarily, ugly, goofy, slow cars that you have to be an environmental martyr to drive. In the long term, we will maximize the number of people who happily purchase and drive EVs by developing great, fun, high-quality cars that mainstream people want to buy.
As with any other new technology, the costs will come down with time and volume. Our next car, a four door sports sedan, will go for as little as $50K. Part of this is because we get economies of scale and we also learn how to do things more efficiently with time. In the future perhaps we can develop a car at an even lower price point.
Darryl Siry
VP Marketing
Tesla Motors
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siry 7:28PM (2/18/2007)
OOPS. I pasted the wrong link - here is the Tesla Corporate Blog:
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog1/
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