Composite Body-In-White

[David Ulo]

Please does anyone know the weight of a composite(Carbon fibre) Body in White for a Plug-in Hybrid Car like the 'Toyota Prius' ? and the Curb/Kerb weight of the vehicle. Thank you.

 

[BrianPetersen]

How long is a piece of rope?

 

[GregLocock]

Bodies typically mass about 200 kg or more, for unitary bodies that are homologated for crash etc. I'd guess you could halve that for a composite one for a small car, plus glass (most of my work would use glazed BIW because the glass is a significant shear panel, and mass).

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[BrianPetersen]

I don't know what the original poster means by the term "composite BIW". Does this mean a body-in-white made of composite materials (fiberglass? carbon-fiber? all-metal but different types? or what? the only quasi-mass-production example of which I know of is the BMW i3) or is it just a spurious word given that "any hybrid car" implies a mass-production vehicle, of which all practical examples (Toyota Prius, Ford Fusion, Honda Insight, etc) use conventional construction with steel stampings spot-welded together just like any other car?

200 kg is about the right order-of-magnitude number.

I don't have the exact number for any such example.

It will help to know why the original poster needs this number.

 

[David Ulo]

Sorry about that it is a Carbon-fiber body-in-white, I have also made adjustments to the initial question I need it to compare Life cycle analysis.Thank you

 

[BrianPetersen]

Since no such thing has been built, the answer in terms of being a production vehicle isn't known. The closest you will find is the BMW i3. Don't know much about those.

 

[David Ulo]

okay, Thank you.

 

[GregLocock]

You could try and find the specs for the Lotus SID, which was an Esprit made out of carbon fibre. The body was fully load bearing as it was designed to use subframes and an isolated spine with the powertrain in, although it didn't ever run in that configuration.

I think the enthusiasts at Rocky mountain institute have put some wildly optimistic guesses together for a lightweight car structure. Actually that's probably the path to take, research lightweight car body. Loads of hits.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[GregLocock]

Just found this

https://www.researchgate.net/public...body-in-white_production_engineering/download

which says 50%, with the proviso that people seem to be using carbon cabins with metal subframes for the suspension/crash structure, which is the way I'd do it.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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