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Posted by: Anthony Lim

BMW has announced that it will be building a state-of-the-art carbon fibre manufacturing plant in the US. The plant, a joint venture project with SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers, will be located in Moses Lake, Washington and will have an initial start-up investment of US$100mil and see the creation of 80 local jobs.

The facility will be integral in the manufacturing of lightweight carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) for use in future vehicle concepts; primarily, the fibres manufactured here will be used exclusively for the upcoming Megacity vehicle, which will be launched before 2015 under a BMW sub-brand, and assembled in Leipzig, Germany, where the current X1 and 1 Series is being built.

The raw material needed to manufacture carbon fibre - a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based precursor - will be produced by a joint venture between SGL Group and Mitsubishi Rayon in Otake, Japan. Then, the plant in Moses Lake will convert the polyacrylic fibres into the actual carbon fibres.

These fibres are then processed into lightweight carbon fiber fabrics in Wackersdorf, Germany, which will then send these fabrics to the BMW plant in Landshut, Germany, to be made into CFRP panels and components for the Megacity.