Of all structural automotive materials, carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs) have the highest lightweight potential in combination with many additional advantages. These include high strength and stiffness, good fatigue properties, a high degree of integration and corrosion resistance. The material has already been established for the application in sports and luxury vehicles. Now, CFRPs are becoming increasingly popular for the application in small to medium volume production cars, such as the BMW i3 or the BMW 7 Series, as well. Initially material and production cost were too high for this application. Now cost is reduced more and more by further developments, such as the maximal utilization of the automation potential. Hence, the material is becoming more attractive in terms of cost as well. For automotive manufacturers, such as Magna Steyr, it is very important to be on the state of the art. The target of this thesis is to contribute to the build-up of internal know-how in the field of development and application of CFRPs in a car body structure. For this purpose, a vehicle benchmark in this field is carried out. Relevant semi-finished products, manufacturing processes and joining technologies for CFRP components or modules in the car body are analyzed and discussed. As the CFRP development process differs from that of conventional car body materials (e.g. steel or aluminum), the special requirements of CFRPs are described in this thesis. Furthermore, the CFRP development process is integrated into the complete vehicle development process according to Magna Steyr development standard.