Importance of automobile interior for sustainability in the automotive industry: The case of volume manufacturers

Wanja Wellbrock, Daniela Ludin and Linda Rohrle
Additional contact information
Wanja Wellbrock: Faculty for Management and Sales, Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences, Heilbronn, Germany
Daniela Ludin: Faculty for Management and Sales, Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences, Heilbronn, Germany
Linda Rohrle: Faculty for Management and Sales, Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences, Heilbronn, Germany

Journal of Applied and Physical Sciences, 2018, vol. 4, issue 2, 60-68

Abstract: Sustainability is regarded as the keyword of the 21st century and the importance of the topic is not yet sufficiently widespread. For the automotive industry, topics such as electric motors, lightweight construction and CO2 emission reduction are key issues. Nevertheless, the car’s interior cannot be ignored. After all, the interior is the part of a car most frequently seen by the driver and must therefore be practical, aesthetically pleasing and at the same time weight saving. The use of natural fibres as alternative materials in the interior plays an important role and is a further step towards greater sustainability. Consequently, the following research question arises: How do the three pillars of sustainability (economical, ecological and social issues) influence interior development at volume brand manufacturers and how do customers accept sustainable solutions? The contribution focuses exclusively on volume manufacturers, because the spread of sustainability effects is more limited for this market segment compared to premium brands. An empirical study is used to determine the expectations on the customer side regarding more sustainability in the automotive industry in general and in the interior sector in particular and to derive corresponding challenges and potentials for original equipment manufacturers. The empirical study is based on an online survey with randomly selected persons via social media. The survey was conducted via Survey monkey. All persons with a minimum age of 18 years were considered.

Keywords: Sustainability; Automotive industry; Interior Innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://tafpublications.com/platform/Articles/full-japs4.2.3.php (application/pdf)
https://tafpublications.com/gip_content/paper/Japs-4.2.3.pdf (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:apb:japsss:2018:p:60-68

DOI: 10.20474/japs-4.2.3

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Applied and Physical Sciences is currently edited by Prof. Vakhrushev Alexander

More articles in Journal of Applied and Physical Sciences from Prof. Vakhrushev Alexander Calle Alarcon 66, Sant Adrian De Besos 08930, Barcelona Spain.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Prof. Vakhrushev Alexander ().