BMW, Volkswagen Eyeing Plant-Based Future for Car Interiors

The auto giants are collaborating with makers of hemp- and flax-based materials that reduce weight and manufacturing emissions and enhance recyclability.

Published 1 month ago | About a 4 minute read

Image: Bcomp

More and more automakers — including Bentley, Ferrari, Ford and Tesla, to name a few — have been developing circular, plant-based material innovations for use in their vehicles; and BMW and Volkswagen have joined the fun.

BMW’s circular seat design wins award

Image credit: Bcomp

A collaboration between BMW M — the performance-car subsidiary of BMW Group — and Swiss lightweighting specialists Bcomp has been recognized by Altair’s 2024 Enlighten Awards, which highlight the global automotive sector’s most innovative, sustainable developments. The BMW M Visionary Materials Seat, which rethinks the composition of car seats and is manufactured with Bcomp’s ampliTex™ flax-based materials, won in the Sustainable Process category for its lifecycle focus.

“We are already using existing technologies and materials to provide an outlook on the possibilities for reducing emissions and conserving resources in the future,” said Falco Hollmann, Innovation Manager Lightweight Construction & Sustainability at BMW M, when he accepted the award. “This is not just about the substitution of materials, but above all about the topic of design for circularity.”

The winning seat design re-envisions conventional manufacture and component materials to introduce a lighter, circular product that meets the demands of large-scale vehicle production. In addition to using natural and recycled materials, less complex assemblies and monomaterials can be separated by type to enable the recyclability of the seat at the end of its life. Bcomp says its flax-fiber composites are CO2e-neutral from cradle to gate, can reduce manufacturing-related emissions of high-performance composite parts by up to 85 percent compared to carbon fiber — depending on the application — and weigh up to 50 percent less than current, large-scale automotive plastic parts.

Bcomp – founded as a garage project in 2011 with a mission to create lightweight yet high-performance skis — has become a leader in high-performance, natural fiber composites for the mobility-, recreational-, and mass transportation sectors. The company also made a recent splash at NASCAR’s annual Chicago Street Race, when the racing organization unveiled a prototype of an all-new battery electric vehicle (BEV) with a body made from Bcomp’s flax fiber composite material. The plant-based material promises to reduce CO2 emissions of traditional carbon fiber by up to 85 percent at similar stiffness, and improve safety in motorsports thanks to a breaking behavior without sharp shattering — a safety aspect that is especially relevant in bumper-to-bumper racing.

BMW first started to work with Bcomp’s materials in 2019 when it used high-performance, natural-fiber composites in the BMW iFE.20 Formula E car.

VW trialing hemp-based ‘leather’ for car interiors

Image credit: Volkswagen

Meanwhile, Volkswagen has partnered with German startup Revoltech to research and develop bio-based materials based for use in automotive interiors.

The winning candidate, called LOVR™ (leather-free, oil-free, vegan, residue-based), is Revoltech’s first textile solution. Made from residues from the regional hemp industry, LOVR is 100 percent plant-based, plastic free, fully recyclable and biodegradable, and can be molded into a variety of textures and finishes — including, for Volkswagen’s purposes, “leather.” The carmaker is testing LOVR for use as sustainable surface material in Volkswagen models from 2028.

LOVR joins a growing variety of plant-based and circular leather alternatives that are offering product designers the same feel and durability as their bovine counterpart, without the environmental trade-offs that can often come with conventional leather. Due to its versatility and ease of processing, Revoltech says LOVR can be produced using existing industrial processes — for easy scalability and integration into large-scale manufacturing — and is a good candidate for use in industries including furniture, fashion and automotive.

“The sustainable use of resources is a key pillar in our ACCELERATE strategy and is therefore firmly anchored in our mindset and our actions. Our clear goal is to fuse customer wishes, sustainability requirements and corporate interests,” said Andreas Walingen, Head of Strategy at the Volkswagen brand, adding that the collaboration was a good example of the benefits to be gained from the targeted combination of the respective strengths of startups and established companies.

Volkswagen says the first presentations of LOVR have received a positive response and feedback from customers.