Suppliers Scramble to Furnish Sophisticated Interiors (and Predict the Future)

You might not have noticed, but car interiors are growing increasingly more complex — not just in how they incorporate technology but also in the materials used. While the 1990s were awash in gray or beige plastics and upholstery, today’s vehicles source furnishings from a vastly broader palate.

Hyundai’s Ioniq is a prime example. In addition to using recycled plastics, it also uses bio-fabrics for the headliner and carpeting. Hyundai has also touted the use of sugarcane as a component for the interior’s soft-touch materials, while powdered wood and volcanic ash hides in harder surfaces.

OEMs are always trying to provide customers with something they can’t get elsewhere. More colors, different trim pieces, eco-friendly materials, and little embellishments that could be the deciding factor. Higher-trimmed vehicles from 2o years ago were primarily set apart by their upgraded mechanical components, adjustable seats, and superior electronics. With today’s vehicles already so well appointed, manufacturers are implementing custom stitching, chrome accents, and decorative lighting on a mass scale to inform occupants, “This is not a base model!”

It’s great news for consumers, but suppliers are scrambling to predict what automakers and their buyers will want next.

Rose Ann Ryntz, vice president of advanced development and materials engineering at International Automotive Components Group, told Automotive News that it’s literally a guessing game.

“We just don’t deal with aluminum or steel. We deal with myriad of magnesium, different type of plastics and different fillers,” she said. “I would say it may be more complex when you look at the growth of crafted interiors and how we get there.”

Ryntz said that while suppliers design parts for several manufacturers, they must also leave room to ensure OEMs can provide something unique to their vehicles. “If a designer asks for a typical type of decoration, we need to understand what happens behind the scenes, underneath what I would consider the ‘A-surface’ to make a quality part,” she said.

Likewise, the expectation of what a vehicle should be has changed dramatically. Understandably, people who spend hours commuting every day want an interior far plusher and safer than the glorified hospital gurneys of yesteryear.

“The interior of an automobile used to be nothing more than a soft bench seat and a roof to keep occupants comfortable and out of the elements,” Michael Harley, executive analyst for industry research firm Kelley Blue Book, said in an interview with Wired earlier this year. “Today, it’s a safety cage, a music amphitheater, a telephone conference room, a place to eat meals, and more. Vehicles are no longer machines that simply move people between two points, and shoppers demand much more from the interior than they did even a decade ago.”

Another sea change seems likely as autonomous vehicles eventually enter into the fray. In-car technology has already gotten to a point where buttons and knobs are no longer a necessity — though they’re very much appreciated. Combine that with automakers perpetually requesting components not add a bunch of heft without sacrificing quality and suppliers have their hands full for the foreseeable future.

“If you look at overall mobility expectations, they’ve pretty much not been defined,” Ryntz said. “I would tell you that the interior of a cabin of a car is not defined, either.”

“We’re designing for everyone,” she continued. “We don’t have electric powertrains versus a combustion engine. We have a myriad of materials, a myriad of deployment characteristics, and I would say in all of it, lightweight is certainly already there but we’re trying to continue to improve it.”