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A third of European cars will have leather seats by 2016, report claims

05/04/2012
A recent research-based report entitled Leather in the European Auto Industry 2012, compiled by a specialist London-based business intelligence company, ims Automotive, has concluded that the use of leather in European car seating is poised for “a further significant advance over the next five years to 2016”. This comes after strong growth during the past five years, the report says.

In 2011 leather seating was fitted to just over 19% of European-produced cars. Taking into account seats with a mix of leather and synthetic materials, the total exceeded 25%. The ims Automotive report says that during the next five years the overall total (leather and mixed leather) will rise to almost 32%.

The producer of the report has told leatherbiz that this growth in leather car seats has been driven by “sharp production rises in recent years” among the traditional users of leather in their vehicles. These range from the small-volume producers such as Aston Martin, Bentley and Rolls-Royce to more mainstream German upmarket producers Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. “Despite the occasional blip in the global economy, it is expected that the buoyant market conditions for these producers will continue, driven by steady demand in Europe and rapidly rising exports to other world markets as wealth increases especially for the middle classes.”

Meanwhile, “in an attempt to boost their credentials for quality and differentiation”, volume car producers such as Ford, GM and Volkswagen are tending to fit leather as standard on some of the top-of-the-range variants in their model ranges, as well as offering leather as an option lower down.

In addition, ims Automotive told us: “On another, maybe more contentious, issue, as cars have become more standardised and bland in their exterior appearances, there has been a clear trend for automotive interiors to move centre-stage in design and specification, which has clearly favoured leather and one or two other materials.”

At the same time, the report’s authors warned that some synthetic materials also appear to “a promising future” in automotive interiors and they said: “The competitive nature of the latest synthetics compared to leather with regard to a wide range of attributes (cost, performance, properties and so on) needs to be monitored as they reach the motor industry.”

Finally, the company said some tier-one seating suppliers are moving towards vertical integration by making investments in the leather processing sector; it named Lear and JCI as examples and said its report goes into these developments in greater detail. “In addition, there are murmurs within the industry that an automotive seating supplier is looking to make a substantial investment in southern Africa,” it said, but would give no further details.


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