I believe that car interiors play a very important role when people buy new cars. In addition to design, fabrics are also an important factor influencing the interior. As our requirements for the environmental protection, comfort, and quietness of vehicle interiors continue to increase, more and more consumers are no longer satisfied with basic demands, and would rather spend more money to upgrade the interior materials when buying a car.
Among them, seats are parts that come into direct contact with the body, and their fabric types are even more "varied". As expensive synthetic materials such as Alcantara are getting closer to us, the debate between it and leather has never stopped. I believe that in most people's traditional cognition, artificial synthetic materials are inferior to natural materials, but is this really the case? So, what is the good thing about Alcantara? Why is Alcantara car seat embossing more popular with consumers than leather?
Generally speaking, in addition to the cost requirements, automotive interior fabrics also have more stringent requirements in terms of anti-fouling, flame retardancy, anti-static, sun resistance, and easy cleaning. At the same time, the seats, steering wheels and other parts that come into contact with the human body also have emphasis on comfort, beauty and durability. Therefore, not all materials can be used as automotive interior fabrics.
1. Leather seats are actually "deep"
Leather seats
Therefore, most models are now equipped with a variety of leather seats. This type of seat looks more beautiful and is easier to clean and maintain, but the "burned buttocks" in summer make many owners of leather seats miserable. In fact, among many leather seats, we can only see the shadow of leather seats in mid-to-high-end models, and the rest of the seat fabrics are generally low-cost artificial leather.
Leather raw materials
Leather seats are a "deep water" configuration. The raw materials of this type of seat are the original skin peeled off from animals (usually pigs, cows, and sheep), and are processed and made by leather factories, but even if they are the same leather seats, their costs can differ by tens of thousands of yuan. At present, the raw materials of most leather seats are cowhide, and the quality of cowhide has completely different characteristics depending on the variety, age, location, growth environment, etc.
Secondly, leather seats can also be divided into first-layer leather, second-layer leather, and multi-layer leather according to different sheet layer processes, among which the price of first-layer leather is the most expensive. For example, in some Jaguar models, engineers use cowhide from the same cow to ensure that the leather texture and color on each seat are exactly the same; while the genuine leather of Bentley interior is made of cowhide from the cold weather in Northern Europe, which is less affected by mosquito bites.
2. In addition to unique craftsmanship, Alcantara has more premium chips
In recent years, in the automotive seat and even the overall interior fabric industry, the long-renowned Alcantara is no longer as mysterious as before, and more and more models are beginning to use Alcantara fabrics in their interiors. In fact, we are not unfamiliar with Alcantara. It is called "suede" by many people, but in fact, it is an out-and-out artificial synthetic material.
Alcantara fabric
Alcantara was born in the 1970s. In 1970, Dr. Mitsunobu Okamoto of Toray Industries, Ltd. of Japan, applied for a patent for this newly developed material. In 1972, Italy's ENI Group (then ANIC Group) and Toray Industries, Ltd. established a joint venture company, Alcantara S.p.A., to jointly develop the commercial use of the patented Alcantara material. Until now, Alcantara is still monopolized by the world's only company. With the entry of Alcantara into China, this material has been given a very aesthetic name - Oulan.
Therefore, in addition to the unique manufacturing process, Alcantara also has a long history and global popularity, coupled with advantages such as patent monopoly, its premium ability can be imagined.
Alcantara fabric
3. What are the advantages of Alcantara?
This material has a sense of grade that is not inferior to leather, and also has a friction coefficient that leather cannot match. When used on the seat, it can prevent the driver's body and seat from sliding during intense driving, providing the driver with a better driving experience. At the same time, this type of material also has strong wear resistance and flame retardancy. If it is not deliberately damaged, this material has almost no signs of aging.
Lamborghini
In addition, this material is warm in winter and cool in summer, and it is also lighter. According to relevant news, after Lamborghini replaced the leather of the whole car with Alcantara, the weight of the whole car was reduced by 5kg, which is crucial for many high-performance sports cars.
Alcantara and interior design
In addition to the above advantages, Alcantara also has extremely strong plasticity and extremely high color saturation. This material is a "match made in heaven" for those "brain-opening" interior designers.
Carbon emission offset
Alcantara is also sought after by many animal protectionists and environmentalists because this material is completely artificially synthesized, without killing any animals, and some of Alcantara's production raw materials come from repeated recycled raw materials. At the same time, the company has achieved "carbon neutrality" by investing in a variety of carbon dioxide absorption projects, that is, the company's total carbon dioxide emissions are zero.
Porsche official website optional
In short, Alcantara has almost all the advantages of leather and fabric, and its disadvantages, in addition to the need for frequent care, are nothing more than high costs. According to relevant information, the price of Alcantara per square meter is about 1,000 yuan, while the price of Nappa leather generally does not exceed 500 yuan per square meter. If embossing, punching, electric welding and other processes are used for decoration on Alcantara, its price will soar. We can see that the optional price of "Alcantara fabric interior components" on Porsche's official website starts at 25,812 yuan. As for those "Alcantara" that cost hundreds of yuan on Taobao, I believe everyone has the answer in their hearts.
Hongqi HS5 Alcantara seats
It is precisely because of its high price that Alcantara was only used in some sports cars under brands such as Lamborghini and Ferrari in the early years. In recent years, with the development of domestic independent brands, some independent brand models have also begun to dabble in this material in car interiors, including Lynk & Co, Hongqi, etc.
Alcantara applications in other fields
Do you think Alcantara can only be used in cars? Due to its many excellent properties, more than 25% of its output is used in the fields of navigation, aviation, consumer electronics, fashion industry, furniture, etc. Whether it is Hermes or LV, whether it is Microsoft Surface or Samsung Galaxy, we can see Alcantara.
Therefore, in terms of vehicle interior fabrics, whether from the perspective of environmental protection or practicality and ease of use, Alcantara car seat embossed fabric is currently an ideal choice.