BMW is no stranger to building automobiles in the United States—just look to its sprawling South Carolina complex, which churns out the X3, X5, and X6 and is ramping up for the upcoming X4—but its Moses Lake, Washington facility is a whole 'nother beast. The plant, a joint venture with fellow German outfit SGL Carbon, is the germ whence the Bavarian automaker's i-branded vehicles spring. And now BMW has offered a look inside the place and the role it plays in the automaker's so-called "LifeDrive" production process for the i3 and i8.
Given that BMW's i vehicles currently target tiny slices of the overall car market—the i8 is a limited-production sports car that's as expensive as the 911 GT3 and the i3 is a pricey and futuristically styled hatchback—the automaker hasn't yet gone all-in constructing a dedicated carbon-textile plant. Still, BMW is betting on the mass production of ultra-lightweight electric and hybrid vehicles pulling carbon fiber out of its motorsports and aerospace niches (not to mention the expensive automotive stratosphere occupied by supercar-makers like Pagani, Lamborghini, and Ferrari). The anticipated economies of scale would allow BMW to bring the exotic material to consumers seeking relatively attainable earth-friendly or sporty transportation, and you can expect the stuff to trickle into mainstream Bimmers over the course of the next decade.
For now, though, the company's shared SGL facility in Washington is where the i3 and i8 begin life. The carbon-fiber weave produced there winds its way to Wackersdorf, Bavaria, where it's laminated into stacks featuring varying fiber alignments before being sent to facilities in Munich-adjacent Landshut and up to Leipzig, a former East German hub city where Porsche also has set up shop. In Leipzig, some of the stacks are molded into i3 parts, while in Landshut, the other stacks become i8 forms. The i8 parts are then shipped to Leipzig, where both cars' passenger modules are bonded together.
Landshut also handles the molding of the i8′s thermoplastic body skin. Like ye olde Pontiac Fiero, the i8 features a plastic body attached to an inner structure. Unlike the Fiero, you won't see C/D entering an i8 in a LeMons race any time in the near future. Interestingly, even though a staggering amount of the i8's process is automated, humans are still required to mask portions of the body panels before painting. Meanwhile, in Dingolfing, just northeast of Landshut off the 92 Autobahn, the i8′s "Drive" module is put together. Constructed from sheet and cast aluminum, the unit features over 800 seams that comprise 150 meters of robot welding.
- First Drive: 2014 BMW i3
- 2015 BMW i8 Prototype Drive: Quick, Sexy, and Brimming With Tech
- BMW i3 Research: Full Pricing, Photos, Reviews, and More
For both models, everything comes together in Leipzig. There the i3′s "Drive" and "Life" modules are assembled on dedicated, parallel production lines then married, while the i8′s Dingolfing-constructed front-axle carrier and battery, English-built 241-hp turbocharged three-cylinder engine, and carbon-fiber chassis and passenger cell are bolted and bonded together on a single line. Once that's all completed, the i8′s body is skinned before meeting up with the i3 in the finishing shop for quality control.
The crazy bit about all of this? BMW claims body shop and assembly line time amounts to only 20 hours—half of what would be required using their conventional production process, largely owing to the simpler assembly of carbon-fiber parts. Will we soon see a day where increased carbon-fiber production and the reduction in the required man-hours for assembly covers the material's considerable price premium over conventional materials? That seems to be the future BMW's working toward. If that's the case, we're all for it, but for now, carbon fiber remains a pricey proposition for any automaker.
from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/nSHy27
Put the internet to work for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment