Automotive upholstery comprehends the interior of any vehicle encompassing the seat covers, carpet, door insides, the trunk space, and the boot space. The prime need for automotive upholstery is to provide luxury to the passengers and a pleasing ambiance of the vehicle interiors. Automotive upholstery also helps distinguish the automobile brand from its competitors by providing an added value. This is mostly done by providing seat covers made from visually appealing and comforting material, providing overall fitments like the dashboard, steering wheel, door insides, etc. in an eye soothing colour scheme.

Demand Scenario

The global automotive upholstery market was USD 4.71 billion in 2018 and is estimated to reach USD 8.43 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 8.67% during the forecast period

Growth by Region

The market in the U.S. in specific has huge prospective in the upholstery segment chiefly because the people in the U.S. have a distinctive taste and style of customizing their cars according to their requirement. Asia Pacific region houses two of the biggest developing economies in the world – China and India. Both these countries are developing automotive hubs, where the demand for luxury vehicles is growing at a steady pace. Escalating vehicle production coupled with adding demand of the luxury segment will drive the automotive upholstery forward and is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period. In the European market, the desire of consumers towards luxury brands is well known, but owing to the weak economy, demand from the European countries would be less compared to the Asian countries.

Drivers and Restraints

The major factors influencing the growth of the market include augmented vehicle demand in the market with large available variety, increased customer requirement owing to awareness about automobile interiors, better proximity of raw material suppliers in the vicinity, breakneck competition between competing automotive firms, influence from popular media, and an rise in the number of affluent buyers. Though the automotive upholstery is more or less customizable, the leading factor in the decision making is the pricing point of the overall system and the fitment cost involved. The inconsistent cost of raw materials directly affects the overall production cost of the upholstery production which, in turn, affects the demand for the upholstery, especially in a price sensitive market.

Industry Trends and Updates

In April 2016, Faurecia’s Cover Carving Technology for automotive seats, has won the Automotive News PACE Award. The technology was successful in reducing the tooling costs by 80% and is 50% lighter than a plastic back panel. In 2016, Mercedes-Benz hit first in the global luxury brand sales pushing back BMW and Audi, where the Mercedes-Benz models majorly supplied with standard Tunja fabric for Upholstery. Synthetic leather is likely to be the largest segment of the Automotive Upholstery Market, by upholstery materials.  This upholstery material is resistant to stain and easy to clean, making it an ideal automotive upholstery material. Due to its synthetic material, this leather type can be manufactured in a vast array of colours and textures. Synthetic leather is mostly used in automotive seat cars and the demand for it is anticipated to grow with growing vehicle production and rising consumption of seat covers. Automotive seat covers is projected to be the largest segment of the Automotive Upholstery Market, by application.