Bridge of Weir supplies low carbon leather for electric car
Scotland-based leather company Bridge of Weir has teamed up with California-based automotive firm, Fisker Automotive, to create a low-carbon car.
Bridge of Weir is the leather supplier of choice to the new Fisker premium electric range of cars. Henrik Fisker, Fisker Automotive co-founder, CEO and executive design director, said: “Bridge of Weir produce the finest leather I have seen in a car, and now that they can do this with zero waste, their low-carbon leather just had to feature in Fisker cars.”
Jonathan Muirhead, chairman of the Scottish Leather Group, said: “This company is founded upon innovation and making great steps forward. My great grandfather saw it in 1910 with the Model T Ford, and several generations since have continued this tradition inside and outside the automotive industry. I think this latest step, with the game-changing Fisker range, is up there with the Model T in terms of great leaps forward. We are extremely proud to have been chosen to be a part of the journey.”
Bridge of Weir’s locally sourced leather will make up the majority of the interior material on the Fisker Karma EcoStandard and EcoSport cars, with seats, steering, dash, door-casings and centre-console trim wrapped in the firm’s ‘low carbon leather’.
Bridge of Weir will also supply low-carbon leather to the full Fisker range. Fisker claims to be the only automotive manufacturer in the world to produce wholly electric vehicles with extended range (‘Ever’). These vehicles can effectively charge themselves from an on-board petrol power generator, the company claims.
What makes Bridge of Weir’s leather ‘low carbon’ is the firm’s new thermal energy plant in Scotland. Opened in 2010, the thermal energy plant is the only one of its kind, the company says, and takes what was previously waste sent straight to landfill and converts it directly to energy for heating the huge volumes of recycled water required in the manufacturing process.
The process starts with hides weighing approximately 40kg and finishes with a leather product that weighs 10% of the original hide. From the remaining 90%, both oil and solid waste is extracted.
The oil is used as a bio-fuel, and the solid waste is converted into steam, supplying the factory with the heat for two hundred million litres of water per year (recycled from the plant’s own loch) – reducing the dependency on fossil fuels and creating low-carbon leather.
