BMW and Audi AG are among more than 70 companies and organizations backing a materials-development group that says it’s getting closer to large-scale manufacturing of cars made with carbon fiber, a lightweight material that helps increase fuel efficiency.

MAI Carbon Cluster Management, an 80 million-euro ($102 million) research effort supported by Germany’s federal government, businesses and research institutions, is making progress toward cutting carbon-fiber production costs by 90 percent, Automotive News reports.

Project lead Klaus Drechsler tells the publication MAI has “reached a halfway point on our cost-cutting target.”

Earlier this year the US Department of Energy made available up to $12 million in funding to advance the production of carbon fiber material from renewable non-food-based feedstocks such as agricultural residues and woody biomass.