BMW is promoting circularity in the automotive industry with shifts toward forward-thinking design solutions.
At the recent 2024 Center for Automotive Research Seminar, Altair honored the BMW Group with the Enlighten Award in the Sustainable Process category. This recognition highlights BMW’s pioneering work in developing the BMW M Visionary Materials Seat project, demonstrating the company’s commitment to future-focused product development. The award-winning seat’s standout features include its sustainable design and comprehensive consideration of the entire product lifecycle, positioning it as a leading example of innovation in sustainable automotive development.
The project was spearheaded by BMW M GmbH, with BMW Group Designworks collaborating on the design, color, and material concepts alongside the BMW design team. The initiative also involved close cooperation with key partners, including Automotive Management Consulting GmbH, Bcomp Ltd, Gradel Lightweight Sàrl, and Lasso Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH, underscoring a collaborative approach to sustainability.
Central to the BMW M Visionary Materials Seat project is the concept of design for circularity, lightweight construction, and creating visually appealing products. The seat incorporates plant-based materials and emphasizes the use of secondary raw materials to enhance recyclability at the end of its lifecycle. This approach not only supports sustainability but also aims to develop a product that is attractive in appearance, high in quality, and functional. The minimalist design reveals the lightweight seat structure, emphasizing its role as a core component. Extensive lifecycle assessments were conducted throughout the development process to ensure that sustainability was integrated at every stage.
In 2021, BMW announced a partnership with Desserto, the Mexican materials company that manufactures leather made from cactus leaves. The move was part of the German automaker’s sustainability efforts.
Falco Hollmann, Innovation Manager for Lightweight Design and Sustainability at BMW M GmbH, accepted the award and highlighted the project’s forward-thinking approach. “We are showing today what will be possible tomorrow with existing technologies and materials in order to take our efforts to reduce emissions and conserve resources to the next level. This is about more than just substituting materials; it is above all about designing for circularity,” Hollmann said in a statement.
The project aimed to bridge the gap between current capabilities and future possibilities while utilizing existing frameworks. Evaluations of materials with a high secondary raw material quota revealed that natural materials are an excellent fit for the project’s goals. The BMW M Visionary Materials Seat features natural fibers, fiber composites, leather alternatives, and algae-based polymers, all contributing to its reduced environmental impact.
According to BMW, the seat’s carbon footprint is 90 percent lower than that of a traditional BMW M carbon bucket seat. This significant reduction is achieved through the use of ultra-light, robotically-wound fiber composite seat support structures, natural-origin materials, and a high recycling rate. The simplified module complexity and use of single-material groups further enhance recyclability at the seat’s end-of-life stage. Additionally, the adoption of innovative additive manufacturing processes eliminates the need for support structures, chemical post-treatment, and finishing, marking a significant advance in sustainable production. The project also prioritized a streamlined value creation chain and minimized finishing steps to conserve energy and resources.
Roberto Rossetti, Head of Development for Total Vehicle-Lifecycle at the BMW Group, emphasized the importance of balancing and modeling the process chain to generate accurate primary data. “The data obtained provides new insights, both in terms of today’s negative contributing factors and the design of tomorrow’s processes. This experience provides a solid foundation for continuously improving sustainability and developing innovative solutions for forward-thinking mobility,” Rossetti explained.
The news comes as British luxury automaker Bentley Motors has taken a step toward more sustainable interiors as the inaugural automotive member of Leather Naturally, an international NGO claiming to advance responsibly sourced leather. This partnership is part of Bentley’s Beyond100 strategy, which aims to establish the company as the global leader in sustainable luxury mobility. Leather Naturally advocates for the use of leather as a by-product of the food industry in an effort to promote circularity.
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