Now we need to further the work on scratch resistant polycarbonates to replace safety glass in automobiles to further reduce the weight of them (and this would lower the center of gravity to give better handling and lessen the likely hood of rollovers).

aerogel would be silly for car windows. There may be a good use in cars, but I cant think of one. Polycarbonate or windows once perfected would help safety in many ways, lower top weight, no glass pieces, better strength for holding up the roof in a rollover, some protection against objects flying into glass, projectiles etc.

Unlike steel and similar to fiberglass, carbon-fiber composites resist corrosion. The problem is delamination; the component shatters or cracks badly. And, while from a materials science perspective a carbon-fiber composite shell and Pope-mobile, polycarbonate windows would be cool, it does seem as if more efficient power trains and improved aerodynamics are higher priorities at present. In other words, where is my plug-in, flex-fuel Pope-mobile?

Even if Carbon Fiber is cheap it will need to compete with steel's forming qualities: you can't stamp out carbon fiber components in a press in a few seconds.

(a) The main reason for the high cost of carbon fibers is that their present manufacturing process is extremely energy-intensive. For a primer, see e.g.

http://www.zoltek.com/

In theory, this could be solved by locating carbon fiber production plants close to where energy is essentially free (both economically and in terms of greenhouse gases) because it is a waste by-product of oil production: "The World Bank estimates that the annual volume of natural gas being flared and vented is about 100 billion cubic meters, enough fuel to provide the combined annual gas consumption of Germany and France."

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTOGMC/EXTGGFR/0,,menuPK:578075~pagePK:64168427~piPK:64168435~theSitePK:578069,00.html

One key issue is that Western companies are reluctant to make the neccessary capital investments in countries liable to raise taxes at the drop of a hat (e.g. Venezuela), disown them outright (e.g. Saudi Arabia) or suffer an insurrection (e.g. Nigeria).

(b) If there were a reliable source of carbon fibers at low, predictable prices, automakers would be keenly interested because of their high strength. BMW already has one model in series production whose roof is made from the material. It's also used extensively in F1 race cars, aircraft and tennis rackets.

Composites - regardless of the fiber type - are not drop-in replacements for other materials like steel. They have very different material properties and require completely different manufacturing methods. The aerospace industry has blazed the trail, but it would still take a long time before carbon fiber at any price could be used extensively in mass-produced cars.

Recycling of composites is also a major issue unless new fibers are so cheap you could afford to burn the used ones. That is definitely not the case for carbon fibers today.

Unlike widespread epoxy-filled composites, thermoplastic filled composites (PE for once) are easy and quick to form, and are fully recyclable.
Boeing just have built first in the world productional carbon-composite airliner - Dreamliner.

This technology is probably good for vehicle cell design. I just hope they don't use it for pannels as well. There is a reason carbon fibre is not used often in vehicles other then the cost of materials.
Unless I'm mistaken about the properties of these new CF composites, carbon fibre tends to shatter into shards more then bend, resulting in pannel bits going through the cabin and driver. CF is stronger and offers the benefits of reduced weight, but in collisions that require crumpling it has limited practicality.

I highly doubt this claim of $10/lbs for cost... even from wholsale manuf the carbon cloth is well over $50/Lbs not even counting epoxy/resin.