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All-composite EV wheel heads to production

  • Magazine Article
  • 20AUTP10_12
Published October 01, 2020 by SAE International in United States
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  • English

Designed for EV and niche applications, the first commercially viable, low cost, lightweight, all-composite wheel moves to the next phase of development with a pilot production run. The product-development consortium, made up of Carbon ThreeSixty, Far-UK, Composite Integration and CNC Robotics, along with Bitrez Ltd as the preferred resin formulator, says it will manufacture 50 ACRIM (All Composite Reduced Inertia Modular) wheels by the end of 2020.

The consortium announced three full vehicle sets are scheduled for proving on MOTIV, a unique and versatile autonomous vehicle (AV). The AV uses Gordon Murray Design's iStream Superlight technology (see www.sae.org/news/2020/02/motiv-av-pod for more on the gullwing AV prototype) and two sets of world-first overmolded RTM (resin transfer molding) wheels, which are headed for qualification testing. The consortium appears ready to challenge the world's most prominent source of production-vehicle carbon-fiber wheels, Australian outfit Carbon Revolution, which produces wheels for Ford's GT and Mustang Shelby GT500.