Car-making process cuts capital investment
Formula One designer Gordon Murray has unveiled the first car to be built with a new manufacturing system he claims reduces capital investment by 80 per cent.
The three-seater T25 weighs 575kg and is responsible for around 40 per cent less emissions over its lifetime than an average car made today.
Murray’s iStream manufacturing process requires 20 per cent of the space of a conventional factory and could encourage more companies to build city cars such as the T25 or Smart models.
‘The reason people don’t make more A-segment cars is that you don’t make any profit on them,’ said Murray at the car’s launch this week at the Oxford University Smith School’s World Forum on Enterprise and Environment.
‘The actual capital investment on an A-segment and a C-segment [small family] car is virtually the same. This gives people a true opportunity to make money selling an A-segment car because the capital investment is tiny.’
iStream cars comprise a body of mechanically fastened panels made from recycled plastic bottles, around a lightweight composite chassis of thin-walled tubes. ‘The total tooling investment for the body is about six per cent of a stainless-steel car, so it’s massive change,’ said Murray.
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