Starting in the 2015 model year, Ford turned to aluminum rather than steel for portions of its F-150 pickups, including the beds. And General Motors was merciless in ads that made fun of the change. But now the time has come for everyone at the ranch to raise their eyebrows a bit: GM is reportedly planning to use plastic for its pickup beds.
In all fairness, it?s not the kind of plastic that the word brings to mind. The beds would be made of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP), commonly just called carbon fiber. And the promise is that this would make the beds far stronger than steel or aluminum while weighing less.
Cost is the major barrier that explains why we haven?t seen carbon fiber in wider use; the material has been employed primarily in gram-conscious performance cars and eco-extremist models such as the BMW i3. Although it?s possible that all of the next-gen light-duty GM trucks sold under the Chevrolet and GMC brands could go with carbon-fiber beds, it?s only likely for the most expensive trim levels of the new truck, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news. The report said that carbon fiber offers about a 60 percent weight saving while costing 20 times more than steel and 10 times more than aluminum.
Carbon-fiber production in large volumes would be a far more labor-intensive and time-consuming process than production of steel or aluminum, although a big flat slab like a pickup bed would be easier to manufacture than, say, a shap...