SE ATING
vegan production
Automotive seat upholstery produced
without harming animals is a relatively new
phenomenon born from niche requests from
high-end customers who are vegan in their
eating habits and increasingly expect the other
products in their lives to be similarly aligned.
But the number of people going vegan is
expanding globally, not only for animal welfare
and personal health reasons, but as a way
of fighting climate change – because animal
agriculture is thought to account for 14-18%
of greenhouse gas emissions. This has not
gone unnoticed by carmakers.
Tesla has used vegan-friendly synthetic
seat leathers for some time; Bentley is
developing a leatherette for production using
waste from the wine industry with Italian
supplier Vegea; and VW has showcased ‘apple
leather’. The latter is made from the skins,
cores and pulp discarded by the apple juice
industry, and should feature on cars available
from the German brand by 2023.
businessjetinteriorsinternational.com
JANUARY 2020 025
BELOW LEFT AND RIGHT: BENTLEY’S
2019 EXP 100 CONCEPT EXPLORES
HOW BIOMETRICS CAN BE USED
IN LUXURY AUTOMOTIVE SEATING
director of research and
development (and also
a chiropractor) explains:
“Specialising in human
performance biomechanics, I had
worked extensively with professional
athletes, helping them to create structural balance,
increased flexibility and greater stability. I realised these
same principles could be applied to improve driver and
passenger wellness for those spending extended periods
of time sitting in a car.”
PROACTIVE APPROACH
It’s well known that sitting for a long time can cause real
problems, so Comfort Motion Global’s approach is to
shift load in small seat motion increments – 1° or less –
to allow natural tissue recovery cycles. Rather than
waiting for the seat occupant to become uncomfortable
and then reactively turning on the massage function ‘to
eleven’, Comfort Motion Global’s solution is proactive.
The proactive approach is also investigated in
Bentley’s 2019 EXP 100 concept, created as a high-tech
vision of a luxury GT in the year 2035. The designers
of EXP 100 suggested biometric seating as a big future
trend, including the ability to monitor temperature,
passenger position and even blood pressure to deliver
the best seating experience – which by 2035 could be
reclined, relaxed and fully autonomous, or upright,
gripped and focussed on fast driving.
Bentley’s designers even thought about this technology
from an aesthetic point of view, using the brand’s
signature diamond quilting upholstery. “On this concept
each diamond represents a different air cell, for adaptive
back support technology,” says Brett Boydell, head of
interior design at Bentley. “But we also wanted it to be
artistic. There’s a cell structure at the base of the back
of the seat and as it dissipates, the pattern dissipates too.”
SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS
Another big trend in automotive seating, which has
simmered below the surface for years, is the use of
sustainable materials. Often promoted in the past in a
tokenistic and optional way, rather than a systematic and
standard one, sustainable materials are starting to take
off as more customers want to combat climate change.
Bombardier’s Global
6500 demonstrator
is outfitted with
seats upholstered
predominantly in grey
wool rather than the
traditional leather
/businessjetinteriorsinternational.com