General Motors is moving past the “aluminum versus steel” debate by adding a new material to the 2019 GMC Sierra tailgate: carbon fiber.
The Sierra’s carbon fiber box, officially known as CarbonPro, replaces steel inside the box itself with Carbon-Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP), while the fenders continue being made of steel.
The box uses a 1-inch composite carbon-fiber thread, with CFRP sheets being molded to allow the plastic to bond and lock with the carbon fiber. The process happens in just one minute. In other words, it’s not a pure carbon fiber weave, which becomes clear upon closer inspection.
GMC believes the material will absorb dents more easily and resist corrosion better. As such, the days of a bed liner could be behind owners that opt for the CarbonPro, which also shaves 62 pounds over a regular steel bed.
The CarbonPro bed won’t be available for fall 2018 launch of the 2019 Sierra, and pricing for the innovative option hasn’t been announced yet.
[nggallery id=992]
Comments
I suspect this is not going to be as expensive as some think. I am sure there will be a premium to start but the use will expand with time and the cost will drop fast.
The cost in Carbon products is in the time to cure it in an autoclave. GM and others have been working hard to come up with a way to make carbon based products in a molded process to cut the MFG time and cost. Carbon is cheap but the MFG time is a killer. They have already been working to do mirrors and other molded items. The bed so far is the largest piece.
This product is going to expand to even body parts at some point once this becomes a more common process.
Like other things like Stability Control, Antilock Brakes and the like it all started on the high end products and today is on everything.
This is CF/CFRP bed is about as durable as a bed liner, that’s how you really “sell” this as you save the weight and costs of the bed liner by getting this bed…GM stated that half of all Silverados do not leave the dealership without a bed liner, you’d imagine roughly another half of those who leave the dealership with a bare bed get an aftermarket solution…
With costs, high trim pickup trucks are extremely hard to properly evaluate because its common between the big 3 (includes GMC) to have some months at $10K off incentives…Therefore if the CF bed Sierra has a $70K MSRP, there could be some months where the ATP is $65K and some where the ATP could be $55K for the same vehicle…
Well plastic liners are quickly becoming a thing o& the past. Most people anymore are using spray in or getting 5ne factory spray in.
My Debnali came standard with the spray in.
I expect expect this bed to be much more durable than the plastic drop in liners. So many of them split and I can’t tell you how many broken ones I see along the road that blew out. I just saw one two days ago.
The drop ins also rub and often wear through the paint and rust. They need to be removed and oiled every so often.
I expect this carbon thing to expand and grow and as it does it will drop in price. 5 years from now it will become very common.