Leather may miss out as automotive interiors change
07/03/2019
Some industry figures have previously expressed their belief that as autonomous driving becomes more widespread, the importance of comfort in the vehicle will grow, with leather in line to benefit from this. With the car itself now taking care of the driving, the interior will become an extension of the home, with passengers seeing it as more of a living space and subsequently expecting it to be more luxurious, which would again be in leather’s favour.
However, speaking on the first day of the Lectra conference at Cestas, near Bordeaux, Madris Hamitouche, a senior component forecasting analyst at research and information group IHS Markit, said that while leather is currently an important material for component makers, this will not always be the case.
He predicted that once vehicles reach autonomy level 4, at which point only minimal driver supervision will be required, manufacturers are likely to only favour leather for seat covers and inserts. Other aspects, such as the console or door trim panels, would be made from synthetic materials that allow for the integration of more connected features. For reference, the current level of autonomy is level 2.
Juan Antonio Islas Muñoz, from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP) was part of two presentations that looked at how vehicle interiors would change in the future. In the second of his interventions, he said that the rise of shared automotive vehicles could mean manufacturers will favour new advanced materials that can more effectively repel water and dirt. This would be required due to the high usage of such vehicles.
He echoed Mr Hamitouche’s comments that textile materials are likely to be more suitable when it comes to embedding smart features in future car interiors.
Mr Muñoz also suggested that with shared vehicles mostly being used for short trips, the comfort factor could become less important, which would again be bad news for leather.
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