When you’re thinking about the ultimate car interior, what does that look like to you? Is it all leather and dark woods, or are you more interested in Alcantara? For Volvo, the dream interior on its flagship SUV should feel like a Scandinavian living room and be made from recycled plastic bottles.
Over the past few weeks, Volvo has been teasing details of its new EX90 flagship SUV, which will be an all-electric successor to the XC90 when it premieres in November. After sharing the tech behind its two-way charging capabilities, Volvo is now explaining more about the materials you’ll find inside the EX90.
According to the company, the new EX90 interior will be made using recycled plastics and responsibly sourced wood and wool to create “a Scandinavian living room atmosphere and evokes the Nordic wilderness.” Sounds nice.
“We’ve chosen materials based on our values,” says Cecilia Stark, Senior Design Manager. “These choices leave behind old-fashioned automotive luxury and express our Scandinavian foundations. With the Volvo EX90 we take customer well-being as a design starting point.”
Volvo has used a new material it calls “Nordico” to cover its seats, instead of leather. The new fabric is made from recycled material such as PET bottles, as well as bio-attributed material from responsibly-managed forests in Sweden and Finland.
Recycled materials have also been used to make the carpets in the new EV. The EX90 will feature floor mats that “partly consist” of a material made from 100% recycled nylon, which Volvo says includes abandoned fishing nets reclaimed from the seabed.
But don’t worry, the interior of the new EX90 isn’t all plastic bottles and fishing nets. Wood paneling in the electric SUV will be sourced from FSC-certified forests across Sweden and Finland. The car will also use a wool blend that has been sourced in accordance with “strict sustainability standards on animal welfare, environmental and social issues.
All this means that the new Volvo will be made with almost 50 kg of recycled plastics and other bio-based materials. This, Volvo says, is the “highest amount of non-primary fossil-based materials” in its lineup.
More details of the new EX90 SUV are expected on November 9th.