Carbon fiber-reinforced resins power Toyota

fiber-reinforced resin-based composites help Toyota achieve lightweighting - the new Prius PHV tailgate loses 3kg. Toyota recently announced its new Prius PHV model with CFRP tailgates at the 2016 Japan Smart Community Show. Toyota plans to launch a new plug-in hybrid (PHEV) Prius PHV in Japan, the U.S. and Europe in the fall of 2016, using carbon fiber-reinforced resin-based composite CFRP, its officials said. The weight of the tailgate was reduced by 3kg by changing from the current aluminum alloy to CFRP. CFRP is used in the skeleton section on the inside of the tailgate.
the new Prius PHV is 80mm longer than the current model. This not only ensures space with the current 2x capacity (8.8kWh) lithium-ion battery, but also the luggage compartment capacity that can be placed in two golf bags. If the tailgate material is still aluminum alloy, the rear of the vehicle will become heavier, so the new generation of models will change the material to RTM (resin transfer molding) molded CFRP. The flaky intermediate material is sourced from other resin manufacturers and RTM molding is done by Toyota. By using CFRP, the tailgate weight can be reduced by 3kg compared to the use of aluminum alloys to make products of the same shape. However, the new car has an longer rear suspension, so the tailgate is longer than the current model, so the actual weight is basically the same as the current model's tailgate.
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