A featherweight future

Hypercar visionary Amory Lovins sees auto engineering following aerospace in its use of advanced structural composites.

When Amory Lovins wrote in a 1991 white paper that a four-passenger car with a body-in-white made of carbon fiber should weigh approximately 400 kg (880 lb), there were more than a few chuckles heard richocheting within the auto industry.

But in recent years, it appears the industry may finally be catching up to the forward-thinking Lovins, an energy-efficiency consultant and long-time advocate of lightweight composite vehicle structures. In 2007, Toyota unveiled the 1/X (pronounced “one-Xth”), a composite-bodied plug-in hybrid concept car. The 1/X has the interior volume of a Prius but only one-third of its 2890-lb (1311-kg) curb weight.