interior

Maserati enters the SUV market

After Bentley’s Bentayaga, Maserati is the latest luxury car manufacturer to explore the rising SUV segment, which traditionally uses a lot of interior leather.

Stahl’s futuristic and sustainable car interior

Leading Dutch chemical manufacturer, Stahl, has partnered with a think tank specialist for the automotive industry to present a new futuristic car interior that has features such as glow-in-the-dark leather.

Are carmakers substituting leather by stealth?

Many of you are familiar with the term “decontenting” which is most used the automotive leather segment and refers to the replacement of one material, i.e leather with another such as vinyl or some polyurethane derivative.

Asian auto leather trends discussed at Shanghai Conference

ILM hosted its second ILM Automotive Leather Supply Chain conference at the Jumeirah Himalayas 5-star hotel in Shanghai on September 1. Major themes included an overview of the auto leather sector in China and India as well as car interior design with a Chinese twist.

Eagle Ottawa outline Hungarian investment

American automobile interior maker Eagle Ottawa and Hungarian city Szolnok Mayor Ferenc Szalay signed a contract on a HUF 9 billion (US$33 million) expansion investment at the Hungarian base of the company in Szolnok (central Hungary), Hungarian news agency MTI reported on February 27.

Tiered hide prices to maintain exclusivity

I see that the mainstream media has discovered that more leather is now appearing in cars. They have also noticed that leather comes from cows and that there might not be enough animals in future to avoid a shortage. Leather could become very expensive as a result. They are a bit late but they got it right.

Leather can be too perfect!

Volvo is a well-known global automotive brand, famous  for making high quality cars and trucks with a strong focus on safety. ILM interviewed Ebba Maria Thunberg,  Design Director Colour and Material for Volvo’s car interior business, about the company’s use of leather

Rolls Royce appoint new head of interior design

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has announced the appointment of Daniel Starke as Head of Interior Design. Starke began his career in the automotive industry with Volkswagen and Audi, before moving to the Interior Design team at BMW in 2001. He was appointed Head of Interior Design for BMW i in 2009, with responsibility for the interior design of the BMW i3 and i8.

Leather can be too perfect!

In the July/August print and digital App edition of ILM we published an interview with Ebba Maria Thunberg, Design Director Colour and Material for Volvo’s car interior business.

When we asked her if she would like to add anything else in the article she simply said: “I think automotive leather interiors are generally too perfect.” 

Olive tanned leather helps BMW win interior design award

BMW’s i3 green car was bestowed with the Automotive Interiors Expo Award 2013 for the Production Interior Vehicle Design of the Year. This was the third edition of these awards that recognises innovative concepts and solutions in the field of interior design. The ceremony was held in Stuttgart, on June 24.