Many of us are still recovering and recharging from the holidays. If you're "lucky" like me, that includes a severe bout of the common cold and teaching my brain that it is no longer 2019.
But as we settle into a new year, let this first In Motion blog post of 2020 serve as a reminder that CES kicks off this week in Las Vegas. Plastics News isn't covering the show in person, but we are keeping an eye out for any relevant news, technology and collaborations that pops up during the show.
CES officially runs Jan. 7-10, but bits of news were already slipping out ahead of event, including last week's announcement from Adac Automotive Inc. The Tier 1 automotive supplier and injection molder is forming a joint venture with a radar technology firm that will supply millimeter wave radar-based sensing products to the global automotive market.
Another CES announcement also caught my eye this past weekend: Fisker Inc., a Los Angeles-based electric vehicle startup founded by automotive designer and entrepreneur Henrik Fisker, unveiled Jan. 5 what it boldly says is the world's most sustainable vehicle.
Dubbed the Fisker Ocean, the all-electric luxury SUV has an optional full-length solar roof and features an exterior and interior that is decorated with material buzzwords, including one of the auto world's favorite darlings: vegan leather.
According to Fisker, some material highlights for the green driving machine include:
• Fully recycled carpeting made from what the company calls "regenerated nylon," using abandoned fishing net waste recovered from the oceans.
• A vegan interior using 100 percent polycarbonate and polyurethane surfaces with 100 percent reinforced rayon backing.
• And Dinamica eco-suede, which uses recycled polyester derived from T-shirts and recycled PET bottles, for example.
The company also said it will use the discarded rubber waste generated during tire manufacturing, so it won't be dumped in landfills.
"Eco-sustainability, as well as the lowest levels of polluting emissions and energy consumption, are guaranteed throughout the whole production cycle," the company said in a news release.
The Fisker Ocean, which starts at roughly $37,500 and gets up to 300 miles per charge, is slated to begin production at the end of 2021.
