Leading chemical company Stahl joined forces with Rinspeed, a creative think-tank and mobility lab for the automotive industry, to create a “driverless car” with a futuristic and sustainable car interior featuring eye-catching technologies such as glow-in-the-dark for leather and Stahl EasyWhite Tan. The latter is a chrome-free tanning system, resulting in high-quality leather, while the first offers a completely new mobility experience at night with luminous interior surfaces. The Rinspeed Ʃtos made its world premiere during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016, the world’s largest electronics and technology trade show, which took place last month in Las Vegas.
Helvetian think-tank and mobility lab Rinspeed celebrated the launch of the Ʃtos concept car during CES. Frank Rinderknecht, CEO at Rinspeed, commented, “The major and especially the disruptive innovations in future automotive engineering will come from the digital realm. That is why all major manufacturers and suppliers are now present at the Consumer Electronics Show.”
Sensory car interiors
Rinspeed opted to use special innovative surface finishes in the Ʃtos that are still alien to car designers. In the interior of the Ʃtos, Stahl created a sensory experience for the customer with the use of different substrates. To start off, a completely new mobility experience is offered at night with the all-new Stahl glow-in-the-dark for leather car interior surfaces. The seat cover, dashboard, steering wheel and door panels for example start to glow when driving in the dark. Furthermore, all leather used in the car is tanned with Stahl EasyWhite Tan, an innovative tanning technology free of metals, featuring improved sustainability credentials regarding water usage, energy and chemicals. Leather tanned with Stahl EasyWhite Tan is high-quality, soft and smooth and offers unique advantages for pale and vibrant colors in leather car interiors, the company says. The high elasticity makes the leather flexible, tear resistant and greatly versatile, enabling thinner and lighter leather than ever.
In addition, the surface finishing system used for the Rinspeed Ʃtos is the industry-leading PolyMatte, a smooth finishing technology creating a matte topcoat with a warm and pleasant touch, the company says.
Stahl’s world of innovative and sustainable car interiors
“With our focus on sustainability and innovation, we are ready for the future,” said Stefan Buri, global director marketing automotive at Stahl. “For years, we have been partnering up with the automotive industry. Now, we are pleased to be collaborating with Rinspeed on such an important and ambitious project as the Ʃtos. This gives us a perfect platform to showcase our most recent technologies and innovations, which will strengthen our position as the global expert in car-interior surfaces.”
Rinspeed has manufactured and created 21 prototypes and mobility concepts.
Watch the video of the Rinspeed Concept Car presentation here.
