For their 2017 concept car Oasis, Rinspeed joined forces with car interior expert Stahl. The Swiss creative think-tank and mobility lab for the automotive industry approached the Dutch chemical company in order to contribute with various solutions to their revolutionary vision of the ‘3rd living space of the future’ - the Rinspeed Oasis. After Rinspeed’s self-driving concept car Ʃtos, presented in 2015, this is the second time the two powerhouses are working together. Stahl’s innovative and sustainable solutions are used in the entire interior, from sustainable tanned leather, comfortable armchair seats to mystically glittering new surfaces technology for car interior materials.

“It’s no secret that leading experts forecast an automotive future where car interiors are becoming the heart of the car,” says Frank M. Rinderknecht, CEO at Rinspeed. “As people are spending a lot of time in their cars, this inspired us to radically rethink the interior and come up with the ‘3rd living space of the future’, which ultimately led to the Rinspeed Oasis. Obviously, we wanted to work with a global player in the car interior industry that would bring something extra to the table. That’s where Stahl came in. Their solutions and the innovative materials used deliver an edge to both, the car manufacturers and the end users.”

“As car interior material surfaces expert and worldwide market leader in our field, we are inspired by working together with leading brands,” says Stefan Buri, Global Marketing Director Automotive at Stahl. “The interior of the Rinspeed Oasis concept car is all about innovative and sustainable solutions that inspire and surprise the user. With the interior of the Oasis we did what we do best: push the boundaries for achieving better end-products and helping to create a better future at the same time.”

The ultimate eye-catcher is the small garden on the sideboard. This adds the element of nature to the car to make it a true third living space. With Stahl’s next-gen car interior technologies, the company contributed significantly to reduced emissions and smell and, consequently, clean and fresh air for the passenger. The leather used in the car was tanned with a technology called Stahl EasyWhite Tan that fits Rinspeed’s revolutionary vision of the 3rd living space of the future. This chrome-free technology also has the sustainability credentials of reducing water, salt and energy during leather processing. In addition, 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. Its high elasticity makes the leather flexible, tear resistant and extremely versatile, enabling thinner and lighter leather than ever. All pluses for a premium sustainable car of the future. Along with this alternative tanning method, the Rinspeed Oasis incorporates other sustainable products such as Green PolyMatte, a bio-based finishing creating future-proof matt surfaces with a warm and pleasant touch.

To improve the driving experience even further, Stahl added a special crystal effect solution in the color Mystic Jungle. This revealed a new design freedom: mystically glittering surfaces that respond to changing ambient lighting and viewing angles. Along with sustainability and surprising elements, the interior of the Rinspeed Oasis shows pure white colors. Such materials need to be protected to last for a long time. That is why Stahl used its latest generation of Stay Clean technology to protect the surfaces from dirt and stains. This way an intrinsically white high-performance cover material was created, bringing the long-desired design intent “snow white” closer to automotive reality than ever before.