BMW i8 carbon fiber composite quality assessment

Tom's former student Chris (polymers thesis) bought a discounted BMW i8 (~$100K vs. $140K list) and judged the carbon fiber resin transfer molding would never pass aerospace QA. "Low quality, high cost material. But they've innovated." ## Figures referenced

One of my former students bought a BMW i8, which is the big hundred-thousand-dollar sports car — $140,000 list, but Chris tells me they deep-discount them, he got his for a hundred. He did his thesis on polymers, and his comment was the carbon fiber composites are junk. Maybe they're not made well. They're fine for just a shell on the outside of the vehicle, and it's lightweight, but the quality of the resin transfer molding would never pass the aerospace industry. So low quality, high cost material. But they've innovated, and they've made a couple of vehicles, first ones in the world. Twenty years ago no one ever thought they could do it, but it's been done.