most eco-friendly vehicle but also to address the sustainability of the vehicle throughout its lifecycle, from cradle to grave. Cradle to grave meant claiming full-scale manufacturing accountability, starting with the production process and ending with the recycling or reuse of all vehicle components at the MCV’s end of life. In essence, BMW sought to record and analyze the sustainability of its entire value chain. A radically conceived vehicle, the MCV would be built from scratch and emphasize BMW’s new EV’s “LifeDrive” concept of incorporating two distinct units of the vehicle, the secure and solid body structure made of CFRP and the electric motor and battery components (Figure 6). The electric motor provides 125kilowatt/170 horsepower and had been designed in-house by BMW, while the battery was supplied by SB Limotive (a joint venture between Samsung and Bosch)xxvii . Klaus Draeger, a member of BMW’s Board of Management for Development, stated: The I3 Vehicle is a revolutionary automobile. It will be the world's first volume-produced vehicle with a passenger cell made from carbon. Our LifeDrive architecture is helping us to open a new chapter in automotive lightweight designxxviii . At the time of the case, raw carbon fiber threads produced at a newly constructed U.S. based plant in Moses Lake, Washington. The plant, a joint venture between BMW and SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers, ran off of hydropower. The carbon fiber material would then be transported via ship to Wackersdorf, Germany, where it would be woven into pre-formed carbon fabric. Next, it was shipped to Landshut, Germany, where the carbon fabric was used to build the main automotive components of the car. During this phase, the material was transformed into panels by a quasi-stamping process and formed using a dyed resin, thus removing the painting process altogether. Finally, the MCV components were to be shipped to BMW’s manufacturing plant in East Germany, near the town of Leipzig, for final assemblyxxix .
The Case for Hybrids The complexities of accounting for electric vehicle emissions left room for debate among other
BMW: I3 Vehicle
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