Carbon Revolution has celebrated its 50,000th single-piece carbon fibre automotive wheel, designed to be fitted to the rear of a Corvette Z06.
Sold at the Waurn Ponds Victoria Factory, the automotive wheel is the most recent Carbon Revolution launched into production.
The milestone underscored Carbon Revolution’s progress towards disruption of the automotive wheel market with its exceptional lightweight technology, Carbon Revolution CEO Jake Dingle said.
“Reaching this number is only the beginning for us. We are scaling up even further as we commission our Mega-Line and sign on new OEM programs,” Dingle said.
Carbon Revolutions 50,000th wheel is a rear wheel for a 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06, measuring at 21” x 13” is the company’s first five-spoke design and the largest wheel to enter production.
The wheel reflects a five-year collaboration between GM and Carbon Revolution designers and engineers and was first revealed to the public with the Z06 in October 2021.
“While this Corvette wheel represents a milestone for Carbon Revolution, we are exceptionally proud of all the OEM wheels we have produced to-date for Ford, Ferrari, Renault and General Motors,” Dingle said.
Founded in 2007, Carbon Revolution began with the goal of providing disruptive efficiency technology to all vehicles – offering its first single-piece carbon fibre wheels to the public in 2009.
Throughout this time, the design of the wheels – a critical part of a vehicle’s safety – had been iterated many times over to become one of the world’s most complex carbon fibre products.
Using industry 4.0 technology, Carbon Revolution has evolved the production process of its wheels to move from a handmade to a highly automated one, governed by big data and machine learning.
The company continues to innovate and use digital technology, AI, and automation to scale its operations and meet this demand, further enhancing the sustainable production of its wheels, Carbon Revolution design and engineering director Dr Ashley Denmead said.
“Using industry 4.0 technology, we are iterating the factory at a pace which would have been unimaginable even ten years ago,” Denmead said.
“We’ve been able to redesign our Mega-Line virtually before it’s built, saving us time and cost in having to move or reorganise physical parts of the factory when they’re operating.”
Carbon Revolution currently has six programs in production with three global OEMs – Ford, Ferrari, and General Motors – with a further nine programs in development, including four for electric vehicles (EVs).
Current programs in development for EV platforms will harness Carbon Revolution’s carbon fibre wheel technology to increase vehicle range and improve aerodynamics, provide differentiated designs, and reduce noise, vibration, and harshness.
The new programs will see the company move from the performance space to supplying wheels for higher volume vehicles, including SUVs and pickup trucks, bringing lightweight carbon fibre wheel technology to a broader cross-section of the automotive space.
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