Response of electroless copper coated CFRP laminates to emulated lightning strikes

•Copper electroless as a sacrificial protection in lightning strike of composites.•Chemical deposition is cheaper than metallic meshes and allow protection tuning.•Charge transfer is related with the damages in lightning emulation of composites.•Defects in protection cause leakages of current to conductive carbon fibers.•Currents reaching the substrate responsible for the rapid increase in temperature.