Photo: BMW
The BMW Group is committed to significantly reducing its carbon footprint, and part of the process of becoming carbon neutral by 2050 at the latest is to launch vegan interiors for their cars.
Starting next year, such materials will be available for models from the BMW and MINI brands in a premiere, and the offering will be expanded in the near future, with emphasis on the United States, Europe, and China.
One new surface material that will be applied to the Group’s vehicles will be wrapped around steering wheels as an alternative to leather. The company says that it fulfills the appearance, wear resistance, and durability criteria and that it reduces CO2 emissions along the value chain by roughly 80%.
“With a steering wheel made from a high-quality vegan surface material, we are fulfilling the wishes of our customers who do not want to make any compromises in terms of look, feel, and functionality,” said the chief of Development Body, Exterior Trim, and Interior, Uwe Kohler. “The innovative material withstands wear and tear caused by abrasion, perspiration, and moisture, and has all the desirable properties of leather.”
Further helping the Group save around 23,000 tons (50,706,320 lbs) of carbon dioxide, and an extra 1,600 tons (3,527,395 lbs) of waste annually, since the waste material is also reused in the production process, are the floor mats made from mono-material.
BMW Group will further invest in the research and development of secondary raw materials and will treat this topic as a top priority. They are already working with various start-up companies to create innovative bio-based materials, and one of them is called Mirium. Said to be 100% bio-based and petroleum-free, it can mimic all the properties of real leather. Thus, the future generation vehicles are said to get “attractive alternatives to leather.”
One new surface material that will be applied to the Group’s vehicles will be wrapped around steering wheels as an alternative to leather. The company says that it fulfills the appearance, wear resistance, and durability criteria and that it reduces CO2 emissions along the value chain by roughly 80%.
“With a steering wheel made from a high-quality vegan surface material, we are fulfilling the wishes of our customers who do not want to make any compromises in terms of look, feel, and functionality,” said the chief of Development Body, Exterior Trim, and Interior, Uwe Kohler. “The innovative material withstands wear and tear caused by abrasion, perspiration, and moisture, and has all the desirable properties of leather.”
Further helping the Group save around 23,000 tons (50,706,320 lbs) of carbon dioxide, and an extra 1,600 tons (3,527,395 lbs) of waste annually, since the waste material is also reused in the production process, are the floor mats made from mono-material.
BMW Group will further invest in the research and development of secondary raw materials and will treat this topic as a top priority. They are already working with various start-up companies to create innovative bio-based materials, and one of them is called Mirium. Said to be 100% bio-based and petroleum-free, it can mimic all the properties of real leather. Thus, the future generation vehicles are said to get “attractive alternatives to leather.”
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