Carbon Revolution was recently awarded its first OEM EV carbon fibre wheel program for a North American OEM. Carbon fibre wheels offer a multitude of benefits for electric vehicles.
As the automotive industry shifts rapidly to electrification, structural demands are competing with aesthetic requirements. As consumers and studios demand larger wheel sizes to pair with increasingly larger vehicles, it is becoming impractical to combine very large aluminium wheels with batteries.
Large wheel sizes on luxury vehicles and SUVs increase the strain on the vehicle’s suspension and challenge the vehicle’s performance. The weight of batteries is compromising OEMs’ ability to navigate CAFE standards and light passenger vehicle mass limits.
Lightweight technologies are key enablers in the EV transition. Carbon Revolution’s lightweight carbon fibre wheel technology is ideally-positioned for OEMs shifting to EVs. Carbon Revolution’s wheels provide up to 100lbs of vehicle weight reduction compared to aluminium wheels and the benefits of Carbon Revolution’s lightweight technology increase as wheel sizes increase and heavier aluminium wheels becomes less viable to achieve OEM performance targets.
Reducing noise is also vital in an EV, where near silent powertrains increase perception of road noise inside the cabin, compared to traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. The low density, high stiffness, and great damping properties of Carbon Revolution’s wheels reduce transmission of road noise from the tyres into the cabin. As an anisotropic material, carbon fibre can also be ‘tuned’ to alter the resonant frequency of carbon fiber wheel designs. Reducing the transmission of road noise can enable reduction of sound deadeners (thereby saving further cost and achieving further weight reduction).
Our engineers can tune the complex internal carbon fibre wheel structure, without altering the wheel’s external geometric design, to ensure resonant frequencies are not perceived by occupants as road noise.
Other solutions to reducing road noise in EVs add weight to already heavy vehicles. Carbon Revolution’s wheels reduce road noise inside the cabin and at the same time offer massive reductions in weight.