The table and bag rack in the BMW i3 Urban Suite are made of sustainable oiled oak.
HAMBURG: From disused PET bottles and used clothing to flax and even the waste from our own bodily functions, car manufacturers have been using recycled and renewable raw materials for many years in their products.
But with sustainability now in vogue, the thrifty designers no longer have to hide such materials from the organic waste or recycling bins. If anything they are starting to show off the second life they give to these natural and used materials.
"Of course there have always been insulation mats made from renewable raw materials or recycled waste," says Steffen Koehl, who works for Mercedes, leading their advanced design.
"But now we are taking such materials out of the shadows and are daring to show them off."
The Mercedes AVTR concept car, which was unveiled at the electronics fair CES in Las Vegas in January, is said to be a kind of showcase for nature conservation with its many decorative elements made from rattan wood.
The raw material for the rattan material of the floor in the Mercedes study AVTR grows back very quickly.
Certified wood and olive tanned leather
Competitor BMW is also diving head first into this area. After the models i3 and i8 already had interiors made of particularly sustainable materials, the Germans are have pushed a small series of the i3 even further into the green.
The table and the bag holder in the i3 Urban Suite come from oiled oak, that come from a certified timber industry and the leather in the rear is completely pollutant-free thanks to olive tanning. The fabric is also sustainable, consisting of pure PET recyclate.
Believe it or not, Skoda relies on pineapple leaves for materials on the interior of its Vision IN concept.
If the floor mat was previously made with several different types of plastic, which according to BMW could not be separated and reused, they have now been reduced to a simpler combination of materials.
According to the manufacturer, the doormat can now be 100-per-cent reintegrated into the material cycle after being used in the vehicle.
Skoda also advertises alternative materials in the Vision IN study, which debuted at the Delhi Motor Show in February. The SUV shows vegan panels on the floor and roof.
Consoles and seat covers are made of leather that has been treated with oak extracts or rhubarb instead of chemicals. The floor mats are made from so-called pineapple leather, which is made from tropical fruit leaves, according to Skoda design director Oliver Stefani.
In a small step towards a sustainable future, Volvo-owned Polestar says it's using old fishing nets and recycled plastic bottles as materials in its interior.
Cleaning up their act
Such considerations are no accident, says designer and professor Pforzheim University at Lutz Fuegener.
"The topic of sustainability has been swinging very high in the automotive industry in recent years," says Fuegener, who believes that manufacturers want to polish their dwindling reputation in many markets.
The interior offers an increasingly suitable playing field for this as it has become much more the focus of attention, not least because of the push towards automated driving.
A sustainable approach in the Range Rover Evoque: seat covers made from the natural fibres of the eucalyptus plant.
"The parallel development of the sustainability of the materials and their aesthetics is difficult," adds Fuegener, citing a disparity between something that is sustainable also being pleasing to the eye.
Additionally, many alternative materials that are now accepted in the home could not be used in the car because they burn too easily, splinter in an accident or, quite simply, are not durable enough.
To make matters worse, the often conservative customer has certain ideas about what constitutes a high-quality interior, says Fuegener, making the move away from wood and leather a difficult one for manufacturers.
