But this is very expensive, so to cut costs SGL Automotive uses threads with 100, 000 strands.

BBC: Knitting and baking the cars of the future

If the economy doesn't roll over, SGL Carbon is too strong not to bounce back.

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"We are not producing a woven fabric, " says Dennis Bauman, head of business development at SGL Automotive.

BBC: Knitting and baking the cars of the future

SGL's executives receive below-average base salaries and are expected to own a large number of shares in the company.

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Instead, the carbon fibre is shipped to SGL Automotive's German factory in Wackersdorf, where a thermoplastic material is injected to bind them together into reinforced plastic sheets.

BBC: Knitting and baking the cars of the future

She also controls chemical manufacturer Altana and holds stakes in wind power outfit Nordex AG and carbon and graphite producer SGL and Geohumus, which focuses on developing a water storing granulate to be used in agriculture.

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Germany's SGL Carbon (6, SGG) has fallen 33% since May and has yet to recover as it supplies primarily the hard-hit steel and semiconductor industries with carbon and graphite products, which include electrodes, laboratory components and furnace linings.

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German carmaker BMW - SGL Automotive's only customer and owner of 49% of its shares - uses the material to produce body parts for the main cabins of its futuristic plug-in models i3 Megacity and i8 sports car, which will hit the road in 2013 and 2014.

BBC: Knitting and baking the cars of the future