MINI E meets Mae West

 Deutsche Version
The MINI E is a prototype car which is BMW's  first step of introducing electric cars to the market.
Based on the actual BMW MINI the MINI E has a conventional steel body frame. Due to the additional weight of the heavy batteries the car is quite heavy for it's size.

To compensate the batteries weight on future electric cars, weight reduction by using leightweight materials is inevitable.

The all electric BMW i3 features a new car body concept existing of an aluminium chassis containing the batteries and the drivetrain - the drive-module- and a CFRP (Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic) module which shapes the passengers cabin - the life module.

The use of CFRP in the automotive industrie is limited at present to high performance cars with very low production output due to high cost and the production process based on manual work.
For the i3 BMW develops new automated production processes for CFRP to reduce the cost and make the material available for mass production.

So the i3 will be the first automobile with high output mostly consisting of CFRP.

BMW i3 life module of CFRP

At architecture and building industrie CFRP is not a very common material.

In the northeast of Munich, at the Effner place, a new work of art claims to be the first major architectural structure made primarily of carbon fibre.
The "Mae West" of artist Rita McBride consists of 32 tubes forming a 52m tall hyperboloid with a diameter of 32m at the ground, 19,5m at the top and 7,50m at the narrowest situation.

At the base the construction is made of steel tubes due to some structural specifications. For an optical reason the steel tubes have a carbon fibre cover. But above the first ring at a height of 15,5m the tubes are completely made of CFRP. Every tube has a lenght of 42m and a weight of 550kg (compared to 3500kg if made of steel).
Here you can find some pictures of the production of these carbon fibre tubes.

So maybe this is the beginning of a wider use of CFRP at building industry.

Skyline of Munich's northeast with  Westin Grand Hotel - Sheraton Arabellapark Hotel / Mae West /  Hypo Vereinsbank-Building

All steel MINI E in front of Mae West with steel basement and CFRP superstructures 

I admit that a BMW i3 and the Mae West would have been a better couple for the photos. Due to the lack of an i3 I took the MINI E ;)