Carbon Revolution May Open a Manufacturing Facility in Mexico to Serve North America Customers

For years, Carbon Revolution has been supplying lightweight wheels for the C8 Corvette Z06 and other high-end sports cars through its state-of-the-art facility in Australia.

Now the company wants to dramatically expand its market by providing wheels for more mainstream vehicles in addition to its current niche market for cars like the Corvette, CEO Jake Dingle said in a recent interview with Automotive News.

That growth will be aided by the opening of a new factory closer to its customers in North America, which is currently “leading the pack” for Carbon Revolution’s business, Dingle said.

“We’re getting ourselves prepared for a facility that will be in North America, quite possibly Mexico, that can service our North American customers and customers in other parts of the world,” Dingle said. “We are looking at some locations at the moment, and some potential partnerships as well, which would support a fairly rapid” ramp-up.

It’s not clear when the new plant would be up and running, but Dingle did indicate in the interview that the company wants it to be open in the next few years.

According to Carbon Revolution, the current factory in Waurn Ponds, Australia could eventually produce 70,000 to 90,000 wheels a year, with the installation of additional automated equipment. A new North American facility using similar technology could enable the company to produce hundreds of thousands more wheels annually.

“The adoption of this technology, particularly for larger pickups and SUVs, is driving our backlog” of about $730 million, more than twice what it was in October 2022, Dingle says.

“We had the view that everything we did would lead us to a high-volume, large-scale manufacturing capability,” he said. “One of the key decision criteria always has been that we must be able to automate and must be able to scale up. We avoid any aspect of manufacturing that would strain that scale-up.”

Carbon Revolution believes the market will support that expanded production, especially with the anticipated growth in inherently heavy electric vehicles that could benefit from its lightweight wheels that could be capable of adding 5 to 10 percent to an EV’s range if the associated weight reduction were to be reinvested in battery mass. The top end of range assumes further benefits from additional aerodynamic, NVH, and structural enhancements, according to the company.

Current customers for its wheels – which weigh about half what traditional aluminum wheels do -include Ford, GM, Renault, Ferrari and JLR.

Source:
Automotive News

Related:
Former GM Chair Bob Lutz to Join the Board of Carbon Revolution
First 2023 Corvette Z06 in Australia Visits with its Wheel Makers at Carbon Revolution
[VIDEO] Future Z06 Owner: I Curbed My Carbon Fiber Wheels…Now What?

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