Historically, the biggest obstacle for electric car manufacturers has been mileage: For decades, electric car companies have struggled to create sustainable cars that can travel hundreds of miles on long road trips without the need for recharging. Mercedes has now just revealed a new electric car that offers both sustainable interior materials like aloe vera leather and mushroom leather, and a greatly improved mileage. The VISION EQXX is expected to be able to travel 620 miles on a single charge – longer than most other cars on the road. It will be equipped with vegan leather made from cactus and mushrooms, making it one of the most sustainable cars in the world to date.
Mercedes promises that its new concept will be commercially available by 2024. In addition to the elegant roadster design, the company also intends to re-engineer its entire fleet to be eclectic by 2025 with the expectation that by 2030, all Mercedes cars will be fully electric. For now, however, the EQXX will push the electric car industry into a new set of standards. For comparison, a Toyota Prius can only travel 588 miles on a full tank of fuel.
“Based on the idea of zero impact on our planet and a very responsible use of green energy, we have inspired our engineers to go even further,” the company explained in a statement.
Sustainable materials like vegan leather seats
While the EQXX boasts unprecedented mileage for an electric vehicle, the vehicle is also equipped with some of the most environmentally friendly materials on the market. The car will be made using mushroom fibres, food scraps, aloe vera and other recyclable materials. The company has partnered with biotech company AMSilk GmbH to create door extrusions that use its own Biosteel fiber – a product created from 100 percent renewable and biodegradable plant silk polymers.
“We are extremely proud to partner with Mercedes-Benz in the VISION EQXX technology programme, which provides best-in-class biofiber sustainable interior design solutions,” said AMsilk CEO Ulrich Scherbel. “Amid a new wave of ambitious climate pledges, we are proud to play a leading role in providing solutions for a zero-waste future.”
Besides Biosteel vegetable silk, the new Mercedes Roadster will also use a self-titled material from Israeli biotech startup UBQ. UBQ material consists of landfill waste that will be incorporated into the interior of the vehicle. The company also announced that the car will be equipped with solar panels to provide supplemental power for electrical systems including the touch screen, lights and air conditioning.
The company will also use two different sustainable leather materials sourced from fungi and aloe vera. The car uses many of the plant-based and sustainable materials that other car manufacturers have previously been involved with, but this one goes above and beyond standards set with the carpeting that will also be made from bamboo fibres.
The Mercedes concept car is rethinking the industry’s sustainability standards, but other companies are beginning to work towards a sustainable automobile industry. In late 2021, Volvo announced that it plans to remove leather from all of its cars by 2030, and work to replace animal-based materials with more sustainable materials in the future. Auto companies are beginning to switch plant-based alternatives as consumer interest has shifted significantly toward sustainability. Findings from the Materials Innovation Initiative study conclude that 55 percent of American consumers prefer leather made from plants over their animal counterparts.
Along with Mercedes and Volvo, German car giant BMW has invested in a vegan leather company with the goal of cutting carbon emissions. BMW i Ventures, the venture capital arm of BMW, has invested an undisclosed amount in welding of natural fibres. BMW intends to manufacture its cars using the leather of the biotech company, MIRIUM – a material consisting of by-products from other industries.
“Natural Fiber Welding has developed an innovative process to transform plants into all-natural, 100% recyclable materials that mimic all the properties of traditional leather, thread and foam,” said Kasper Sage, Managing Partner of BMW i Ventures. “Having a scalable, cost-competitive alternative to high-quality leather is key to further advances in decarbonizing the automobile industry.”
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