The latest casualties of the EV pullback could spill over to combustion cars, specifically high-performance sports cars and supercars that have nothing to do with electrification. One company makes carbon fiber wheels for Ford, GM, Lamborghini, and more, and it has just gone into a form of bankruptcy. It’s hoping to restructure, but the potential is there for a very big disruption.
Major Carbon Wheel Supplier Has Struggled
Carbon Revolution wheelsCarbon Revolution
Carbon Revolution is a Tier 1 automotive industry supplier based in Australia. For the last two decades, it has been the go-to for automakers that want ultra-light carbon fiber wheels for their cars.
Now the company and its Australian subsidiaries have entered Voluntary Administration. This is meant to help the company shed debt, and is closer to the US Chapter 11 bankruptcy than Chapter 7. The business expects to continue and emerge as a private business, not a publicly traded one.
The company expected rapid growth to follow growing electric vehicle sales, as automakers worked harder and harder to extract maximum range and efficiency from their EVs. Offering wheels 40-50% lighter than standard alloys is good for sports cars, but it would also help offset the weight of an EV battery. More importantly, it would reduce the rotating mass of the wheel and tire, which directly impacts range.
Related
Mazda Has A Plan To Make Carbon Fiber For Mainstream Vehicles
Simpler manufacturing should make things cheaper.
CR grew quickly in response. In 2023, it said it had “a large backlog of projected sales from awarded OEM programs,” of $460 million, and expected that to climb. The company scaled up, and now it has been hit hard.
Company Expected EV Growth
Carbon Revolution wheelsCarbon Revolution
Just look at the effect of larger diameter – and thus heavier – wheels on EVs, and it is easy to understand the company’s optimism. Moving from the 19-inch wheels to 20s on the Lucid Air Pure (both alloys), for example, cuts range from 420 miles to just 372. That’s normal, not an exception.
“As the market’s appreciation for the value that carbon fiber wheels deliver continues to grow, the restructured business will be well set up to be a prime beneficiary of this trend at just the right time,” Bob Lutz, Chair of Carbon Revolution, said in a statement.
Carbon Revolution wheelsCarbon Revolution
The wheel company said that it expects its Australian operations to carry on as normal. That includes developing new products and meeting existing production schedules. The restructuring has been agreed to by “substantially all its senior secured lenders.” It still needs to be approved by administrators and by creditors.
Earlier this year, the company announced that it had been delisted from NASDAQ. In 2025, it announced prior-year losses of $146.4 million despite record revenues, which climbed 87%. The company had also confirmed in an investor update that it had lost some EV-related contracts as automakers pulled back their plans.
Related
First Brands Bankruptcy Kills Three Major Auto Parts Companies
Autolite, Cardone, and Raybestos are the first casualties of the sprawling First Brands collapse.
Carbon Revolution broke into the OE wheel market with the 2015 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350R’s optional carbon wheels. Other notable early applications include the Renault Megane RS Trophy-R, Ferrari 488 Pista, and the C8 Corvette Z06. It has supplied for the Lamborghini Temerario, Range Rover Sport SV, and continues to deliver wheels for numerous high-performance applications. Outside of automotive, it even delivered wheels for the US military’s Boeing CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter.
Source: Carbon Revolution
