The Prius Prime is Toyota’s first plug-in electric hybrid car for the mass market in the United States and a flag-bearer for the company’s future. In June, the Japanese automaker announced plans to have all-electric versions of every vehicle in its lineup and draw half of its sales from a mix of electrified vehicles by 2025.Building all those EVs introduces new design challenges for automakers.The batteries are by far the most expensive parts in an EV, so this places a premium on reducing the car’s overall weight; a lighter car means fewer batteries required to make it race down the highway and a lower sticker price. And so it’s notable that the Prius Prime’s rear hatch differs from those of standard Priuses in one important aspect: it’s made from carbon fibre.Carbon fibre is a material perfectly suited to electric vehicles. Manufactured from long strands of carbon blended with plastic resin (think fibreglass, with carbon replacing the glass), it’s far stronger than steel — up to 10 times as strong — and much lighter. Plus it doesn’t corrode.Owing to these advantages, carbon fibre has been coveted by carmakers since it was first introduced in the early 1980s. Because of its steep price, though, it has until recently been used primarily in racing cars and next-generation prototypes. (Carbon fibre costs as much as $7 U.S., or $9.22 Canadian, per pound wholesale, compared to about 40 cents per pound for steel or 80 cents for aluminum.) The explosive growth in electric vehicle sales, however, creates a unique and potentially enormous market for carbon fibre — especially if the manufacturing costs of the stuff can be slashed somehow.And this is where Alberta’s oilsands come in. Alberta produces nearly three million barrels of bitumen from the oilsands each day — heavy oil in need of expensive and energy-intensive processing to be turned into transportation fuel.The industry faces an uncerta ...
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