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Every vehicle produced has its own unique interior design and every vehicle manufacturer has a different set of requirements keeping its target audience in mind. Auto OEMs are paying more and more attention to the in-car user experience which is driving innovations in this domain.
Cockpits are becoming more user friendly, accessible and information loaded that the user could get the most of out the features presented to them. The advancement in technologies such as smart materials, 3D printing, injection moulding, haptic technology, to name a few, have given an uplift in the in-cabin user experience for the driver and passenger.
With the increasing penetration of EVs in the automotive market, the cockpit is set to experience a complete digital overhaul with integrated systems and controls which will bring all functions and features to one single place. Head-up display, haptic feedback, eye tracking and intelligent sensors are gaining more prominence in the cabin experience for enhanced safety and user experience.
Another area where significant attention is paid, is in the fabric and feel of the cockpit and seats. Leather and synthetics are gaining more penetration in premium SUVs and EVs because of the plush feel it imparts to the user.
To know more about Global Electric Vehicle Interiors Market, read our report
As technology further proliferates the car industry, the interior segment cannot be left far behind. As a result, Group Antolin has partnered with Eyesight (focussed on driver monitoring safety), Hi-Rain Technologies (focussed on comfort oriented interior features).
The automotive interiors market is driven by the increasing demand for advanced seating systems, infotainment systems, lighting, comfort and convenience in vehicles and most importantly increase in the production of vehicles.
The infotainment system is the biggest segment in the automotive interior market. The infotainment screens have been the main focus of automakers with screens packed with the latest technological capabilities.
For instance, the 2021 Mercedes S-Class will be incorporated with five touch screens as well as a central unit of a 12.8 inch OLED screen. The company Honda revealed the launch of the new Honda E with pillar-to-pillar screens. They will include two 6-inch screens with an 8.8 TFT screen as well as 12.3 inch LCD screens.
The general trend in the US automotive interiors market focusses on a premium in-cabin experience. Advanced safety and driver assistance features such as FCW, AEB are prominent in most trims among the highest selling vehicles in the region.
Pick-up trucks, which comprises of a big chunk of the most sold vehicles in the US, the interior features are more premium than an average SUV. Convenience feature such as foldable tables, digital clusters, infotainment screens and leather trimmed seats for the cockpit are more common in the pickup trucks in all its trims, to boost the in-cabin experience for the user.
Pick-up truck by RAM and the CX-5 by Mazda are among the vehicles which have a standard infotainment screen greater than 10” in all its trims. Customizable interior lighting and driver configurable instrument cluster is showing increasing penetration among most of the top selling vehicles in the region.
Long distance travel purposed vehicles such as a pick-up truck are seeing increasing penetration of 8-way adjustable driver seats as well as heated seats are a standard feature in the premium trims. Top selling vehicles by OEMs such as Honda, Nissan and Toyota are also seeing premium safety features such as head-up display, blind-spot monitoring and voice activated drive features.
The in-cabin experience is also increasing being equipped with automated climate control and rear AC vents, predominantly in the top end trims. In comparison to other regions, the US automotive market is laying more focus of cabin experience with a lot of driver assist and convenience features.
Noticeably, the top selling vehicles by Chevrolet – Silverado and Equinox – have chosen to go with a 8” infotainment LCD screen as a standard on all their trims, and shares similarities with its counterparts such as the Nissan Rogue, Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.
In the European region, the infotainment experience is subdued as compared to the US trims. The top selling vehicles comprise of cheaper and cost-effective models which are comparatively less feature loaded than its counterparts in the US.
Nevertheless, the newer models in 2021 are witnessing increasing penetration of digital infotainment screens unlike the erstwhile Volkswagen models which featured a basic analog infotainment system. A noteworthy observation is that 4 of out 5 models in the top selling vehicles feature an 8” infotainment screen in all of its trims as standard.
All Volkswagen models, which comprise of 5 of the top 25 selling models, get an uplift in its screen to an 8”LCD touchscreen variant. 7” infotainment screens have a higher penetration than the US market due to the popular demand for cheaper cars with convincing payment options.
Many variants such as the Nissan Qashqai, Skoda Fabia and Fiat Panda don’t even get a screen in any of their trims which is less likely to be seen in a US or Chinese market.
Driver assistance features such as Lane keep assist and blind spot monitoring are increasingly being adopted by OEMs in order to increase their feature book. Voice activated control, heated seats, leather trimmed dashboard and seats are increasing in penetration from the mid-range trims in most of the top selling vehicles.
It is also noticeable that the EV segment in this region has been on the rise and they feature interiors much superior to their combustion engine counterparts.
Digital displays, minimalistic controls, customizable ambient lighting and superior seats are more common in the EV segment in this region and is expected to get a boost in terms of volume.
Visteon acquired the highest market share in the European Union with ~14%, followed by Harman.
Across Europe, the number of vehicles adopting the 8-10 inch displays is higher as compared to that in the USA where 7-inch displays have the higher market penetration.
Mercedes Benz models are mostly fitted with an infotainment system of screen size greater than 10 inches, followed by Skoda and Peugeot. Ford and Volkswagen’s top sellers mostly had infotainment systems with display sizes between 8-10 inches.
The Chinese automotive market is among the most feature loaded regions as far as in-cabin features are concerned. Among the top 10 selling vehicles, only two models featured a 7” infotainment screens, whereas the rest of the models had an average 78% penetration of 8-10”screens.
Plush cockpit design with fabric and digital clusters are more visible among the models in this region.
The Chinese market had the highest penetration of larger infotainment LCD screens among all other regions in the world. Surprisingly, models such as the VW Santana, Honda Civic, Buick GL8 still feature either an analog or a small screen which are unfitting of the overall Chinese market.
Advanced features such as head-up display, advanced driver assistance systems and sunroofs have the highest penetration comparted to any other region in the world. This region is also witnessing an increase in the usage of glass fiber in their interior parts such as doors, dashboards, illuminators due to its high impact resistance, low cost, less brittle, and light in weight.
The rampant increase in adoption of EV in the Chinese market is also giving rise to OEMs using strong and lightweight composite materials in their dashboards, doors, cockpits.
Completely digital clusters and displays are most common in the cars of this region due to fierce competition between difference OEMs to establish a customer base in China. Some OEMs like NIO are resorting to wooden interiors especially for their EV models to enhance the luxury feel in the cabin.
BAIC Yinxiang Automobile Co. Ltd has collaborated with ADAYO for the development of a new vehicle infotainment system. The partnership is set to develop new platforms for BAIC Yinxiang which will help restructure the platform production mode for intelligent vehicle manufacturing.
In May 2020, the company Honda announced a partnership with Tencent to develop infotainment systems for the Chinese market. The infotainment system will enable the passengers to hear Tencent’s exclusive music streaming service, audiobooks, newspapers as well as internet radio.
Although the Indian automotive interiors market is witnessing premium features less adopted in their most selling vehicles, it is evident that auto OEMs are constantly trying to adopt more features for better USP. Increasing customer expectation and competition is driving the need for enhanced in-cabin experience.
Maruti Suzuki holds highest market share in India and also accounts for all of the top 5 selling vehicles in the region. Only the top end trim of each of the model feature a basic 7” infotainment screen, while only 2 out of 10 models namely the Hyundai Creta and Hyundai i20 Elite feature a screen greater than 10” for infotainment purposes.
Features such as ambient lighting, head-up display or driver assistance systems are absent in almost all of the top 20 selling vehicles in the region. The latency for growth of premium features will continue to be slow for cars in this region due to price advantage being the strongest USP for most auto OEMs.
Nevertheless, steering mounted controls and rear AC vents are being increasingly offered by many auto manufacturers at-least in their mid-to-top variants.
The premium segment of vehicles in the region as well as new entrants such as Kia and Citroen feature a digital display and cluster along with premium fabric dashboards thereby enhancing the in-cabin experience at a price.
The Asia-Pacific market is estimated to grow at a fast pace with growing demand for luxury, high-end vehicles with infotainment systems and other digital services.
However, the penetration of the market in Indian market is relatively less, major automakers in India are now focusing on developing infotainment systems.
For instance, Maruti Suzuki launched the Smartplay infotainment system in the new model of WagonR, Hyundai launched the new model of Santo with an infotainment system with smartphone connectivity. Renault has also announced plans to launch the new model of Kwid with Apple CarPlay as well as Android Auto-across.
The global automotive interiors market is estimated at $XX Billion in 2024 growing at –% CAGR till 2030
Huntsman has introduced the ACOUSTIFLEX® LE and RUBIFLEX® LE polyurethane product lines, which are low-emission MDI-based foam systems for automobile interiors. These cutting-edge technologies enable worldwide automobile formulators and foam manufacturers to create high-performance polyurethane foams while lowering interior emissions to fulfil OEM regulations.
As it responds to consumer preferences and emerging regulations governing Vehicle Interior Air Quality emissions from interior components – such as national laws in many countries, new international ISO standards, or policies like the Circular Cars Initiative EU policy action roadmap – the automotive industry is steadily progressing toward its sustainability goals.
Huntsman has responded to the industry’s issue of lowering emissions of interior components by embedding sustainability into its product lines with low emission (LE) forward-looking technology. Manufacturers and drivers will benefit from cleaner, lighter, and more circular PU technologies that provide superior comfort.
Low-emission polyurethanes ACOUSTIFLEX® LE and RUBIFLEX® LE are the first completely commercialised technologies on the market. These items were created for use in vehicle seats and sound insulation components.
Producers can reduce the number of various types of PU products they need to acquire by using them to make a wide range of conventional automotive components, streamlining procurement and value chains.
As of (US Eastern time), Sage Automotive Interiors (Sage), an Asahi Kasei company with headquarters in South Carolina and Dirk Pieper as CEO, has successfully acquired the automotive fabrics division of Adient plc for about $175 million. After receiving all the regulatory clearances, the transaction was completed (US Eastern Time).
Sage will be able to grow even further in Europe, the region with the largest market for automotive interior fabric and the source of cutting-edge automotive trends, by combining the automotive fabrics business it acquired from Adient, which has its marketing, manufacturing, and development facilities located in Europe, with its own established business. With this transaction, Sage hopes to realise the following synergies.
1) Ideal world manufacturing
2) Mutually beneficial connections with NA/EU OEMs
A complete product lineup (fabric, artificial suede, synthetic leather)
Sage is anticipated to contribute more and more to the Asahi Kasei Group’s overall growth of business in the automotive industry by advancing its regional strategy and product strategy globally to solidify its position as one of the top suppliers of vehicle seat fabric and strengthen its ties with automotive OEMs in each region.
In addition, Sage anticipates that its growth in Europe will allow it to keep a commanding lead in the global market for automobile interior materials.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant decline in the automotive industry as the sales and demand for vehicles decreased across the globe. As the demand for vehicles decreased, the market for automotive interiors also declined. Automotive interior manufacturers suffered due to low-level innovations due to a crunch in investments.
The company Faurecia’s sales decreased in the first quarter of the year 2020 by approximately 31% as compared to the year 2019. The company also halted its production activities across the majorly affected countries with regards to the pandemic lockdowns and protocols. The sales of the group declined by 35.4% during the first half of the year 2020. By the second half of the year, the revenues generated by the North American and European markets were down by 14% and 22% as compared to the year 2019.
Marelli also suffered the impact of COVID-19 during the first half of the year 2020. The company’s major production units are located across Italy, which was the worst affected country in the world.
As a result of which, the company’s revenues decreased significantly, they had to halt the manufacturing units across the country due to the pandemic from March 2020. The company resumed the production activities by the third quarter of the year 2020 which pandemic protocols.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the infotainment system for the automotive industry is primarily driven by the sales of vehicles and their production. The sales of vehicles during the pandemic decreased due to the lockdowns put in place by governments across the globe. Due to the lockdowns and halt in production and manufacturing activities, the sales of vehicles experienced slow growth.
The major hit for the automotive industry is due to the shortage of semiconductor components and chips. The shortage was created mainly due to the lockdown in China and Taiwan.
The industry is now trying to recover the market but due to the excessive backlog, the shortage is affecting the automotive industry the most. Many OEMs including BMW, Audi and Tesla have announced the delay in the launch of new models and delivery of existing orders due to component shortage.
The global automotive interiors market is heavily consolidated in favour of fewer than 5 vendors accounting for more than 70% share of the global market.
In September 2020, Marelli announced an agreement with Highly International (Hong Kong) Limited to form a new joint venture which will be named Highly Marelli Holdings.
The new venture will deal in the cabin comfort business with a focus on developing advanced solutions specifically for the electrification of heating solutions and compressors. They will also develop HVAC systems for vehicle ventilation and air conditioning as well as the electrically driven compressor systems.
In recent years, Yanfeng interiors have emerged as a strong name in the automotive interiors market post joint venture agreement with Johnson Controls. SAIC backed Yanfeng has a 70 per cent share in the joint venture, and Johnson Controls has a 30 per cent share. The Shanghai headquartered company is among the biggest names in the auto component suppliers list with more than 90 manufacturing, global engineering, development and customer centres across the globe.
Yanfeng, which is a global automotive supplier, has announced the expansion of the company with a new manufacturing unit in Kragujevac, Serbia for the automotive seating business. The manufacturing unit will begin production in the summer of 2022. The company announced an agreement with Adient to acquire Adient Asia’s 49.99% share in the Yanfeng Adient Seating joint venture in China. Yanfeng will take full ownership of the joint venture and all the 16000 employees.
Faurecia released the financial statements for the third quarter of the year 2021 with group sales of EUR 3,426 million for the year 2021 which was a 10.4% decline from EUR 3,823 million recorded in the year 2020 for the same quarter.
The company has also developed a new manufacturing site in Russia for the development of seating solutions for automotive vehicles. The company has acquired the world’s leading automotive technology company designLED, based in Scotland.
The company specialises in advanced backlighting technologies with which Faurecia is expected to expand its display technologies and enhance the immersive cockpit experiences.
Grupo Antolin has announced an agreement with ZONAIR3D which will offer clean air inside vehicles named the Air Move+. This will enable the development and integration of innovative solutions for vehicle interiors.
The solution has been designed to minimise the risk of contracting COVID-19 as well as other viruses which will prevent diseases in the future related to air pollution. The company has set up a joint venture with NAEN in China to promote in-vehicle electronic integrated solutions.
Continental AG recently released the half-yearly financial report for the first half of the year 2021 with sales worth $23.7 billion which was an increase from the previous year which reported $19.5 billion for H1 of 2020.
The sales of the automotive technology department were $9.2 billion for the same term, an increase from the H1 of 2020 which reported $7.9 billion worth of sales.
Visteon announced the results of the third quarter of the year 2021 with net sales worth $ 631 million which was a decrease from $ 747 million recorded for the third quarter of the year 2020.
Groupo Antolin has a notable presence worldwide and especially in Europe where it supplies its products to various premium car platforms. Some of the major players in the infotainment & instrument cluster market are Visteon, Continental, Faurecia, Bosch, Panasonic, Harman.
Players such as Continental, Visteon, BAE systems, Microvision, Panasonic, Pioneer, Garmin and Denso are prominent in the head-up display market.
Eye-tracking to avoid driver distraction is being introduced in the market by major players such as Tobii, SmartEye, SMI, EyeLink, LC technologies, GazePoint.
