Once reserved for the most exclusive vehicles and only occasionally found on the hoods of street racers, carbon fiber may be coming to a Malibu near you. GM has partnered with Teijin Limited, a Japanese carbon fiber manufacturer, to develop advanced composite materials for cars that mainstream buyers can afford.

As car manufacturers look to shed weight and improve gas mileage, lightweight carbon fiber is becoming increasingly attractive – and not just for high end concept cars like the Camaro ZL1 Carbon shown above. The composite material is ten times stronger than steel but weighs only a quarter as much. Replacing steel panels with carbon fiber is an easy way to build a lighter car without drawing a major redesign or sacrificing structural integrity.

In years past, the switch to carbon fiber would have put even an average car out of the price range of most buyers, as the material itself had been labor intensive to create. Now, Teijin has developed a method of mass producing carbon fiber that takes less than a minute to build each component. By comparison, back in the early '90s it took 3,000 hours to build the carbon fiber tub of a McLaren F1. GM's Vice Chairman Steve Girsky calls the democratization of carbon fiber a "game changer."

A decade ago, automakers like Audi and Jaguar began putting their largest sedans on aluminum diets, shedding pounds to build more efficient and nimble cars. GM hopes that their partnership with Teijin will yield similar improvements across their vehicle lineup, with lighter-weight cars that can more easily meet new fuel efficiency standards.

At this point, we only know that GM and Teijin are planning to build a research facility "in the northern part of the United States early next year." We don't know what parts will be made from carbon fiber, nor do we know which cars will get the composite treatment. We also don't know how much a switch to carbon fiber will cost the consumer, though we're pretty sure that insurance premiums may increase in proportion to the composite material content of a vehicle. Carbon fiber can splinter and shatter after a crash, requiring full part replacement instead of repair.

Neither GM nor Teijin is willing to tell much more. According to Teijin's Rie Mashiba, the companies won't comment on any specifics until the technology is "closer to market readiness."

Photo: GM