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Excellent video of the BMW i3 production line: https://youtu.be/pa5_tudyAF8 https://youtu.be/pa5_tudyAF8?

• sbierwagen 3y ago
  @5:27 Note the strange welded-aluminum frame the worker sets into the battery box. That's because the i3's battery is cooled by the AC system! What a tragic car. Discontinued in 2021. The material costs of carbon fiber are dirt cheap, so in theory it ought to beat aluminum for car structure. But once you get away from simple tubes, which can be fully automated, layup ends up being most of your costs. (Not helped by the fact that i3 carbon parts were made on the opposite side the of the planet and shipped to Germany) BMW's business case for the car had to be "once we make enough of them, costs will come down", but that never happened.
  • hef19898 3y ago
    Carbon fibre is cheap-ish tp buy. Carbon fibre parts are the opposite of cheap so, especially load bearing and safety critical parts with complex geometries, those are quite expensive. The i3 was an interesting car so, and BMW for some reason fumbled the head start the car got them.