The new $645,000 Ferrari 488 Pista will offer Carbon Revolution's lightweight, high-performance carbon fibre wheels in a coup for the Geelong-based manufacturer as it mulls a $100 million-plus public float.
Ferrari unveiled the Pista 488 at the Geneva Motor Show on Tuesday and named Carbon Revolution as one of 21 key strategic partners on the 488 Pista program, with Michelin, Robert Bosch, Shell and Apple.
The Pista 488 is the most powerful road-going V8 in Ferrari's history and Carbon Revolution's wheels – 40 per cent lighter than the wheels on Ferrari's standard 488 GTB – are an optional extra in a big weight-saving effort.
The Ferrari deal gives Carbon Revolution a beachhead on both sides of the Atlantic and shows the company's global leadership in the nascent technology of making wheels from carbon fibres that can withstand the extreme pressures of performance driving.
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The 488 Pista is the most powerful road-going V8 in Ferrari's history. Carbon Revolution's carbon fibre wheels, which save 40 per cent of the weight of conventional alloy wheels, are offered as an optional extra. Supplied
"They are an innovation leader. They put extreme demands on any technology that they employ in a car. So it's a really strong signal in terms of the technology and it's a great achievement for us to meet their requirements," chief executive Jake Dingle said from Geneva.
Mr Dingle said Carbon Revolution is in talks with global car makers to fit the wheels progressively to higher volume production cars as it "industrialises" its manufacturing processes and reduces costs.
"It's really an indication of how the industry is embracing this technology at the performance end of the spectrum. By achieving the very tough requirements of that application, it logically therefore fits the broader range of applications that we are now also applying this technology to." From a garage to Geneva
Carbon Revolution was started in a garage in Leopold, a Geelong suburb, a dozen years ago and has previously signed deals to supply its wheels as an option on the Ford GT supercar in 2016 and as standard equipment on the Mustang Shelby GTR in 2015.
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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull lifted a 7.3-kilogram carbon fibre wheel during a visit to Carbon Revolution in Geelong earlier this year. Andrew Meares
It's become an example of the kind of world-leading high tech firm that Innovation and Science Australia chairman Bill Ferris says Australia needs more of to prosper in the global market after the closure of local car assembly and the waning of the mining boom.
The company raised $50 million in 2016, including $10 million from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, a federal green bank, to expand and automate its unique manufacturing process at its plant in Waurn Ponds.
Mr Dingle said Carbon Revolution's technology is gaining global acceptance beyond the performance car level and can improve the fuel efficiency and emissions performance of production cars because it represents "one of the biggest step changes in weight in years".
The company has "multiple committed programs" with major global auto makers "at progressively higher volumes" in the pipeline – including for SUVs – and needs to dramatically expand and automate its factory on Deakin University's Waurn Ponds campus. The global passenger wheels market is more than 400 million wheels.
$100m IPO mulled
It is considering options to raise another potentially $100 million plus in new capital this year to fund the expansion of its Waurn Ponds plant to a capacity of 250,000 wheels a year. After that it will look at expanding into offshore production nearer to the major global auto markets.
"Given the rapid uptake of the technology we are certainly considering an IPO as a preferred option rather than pushing it out further," Mr Dingle said.
He expected a final decision to be made in the coming weeks and months. No bankers have been appointed. Evans and Partners advised the company on the 2016 capital raising.
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