BMW Innovation Days : Car Seats - Lighter but Nevertheless Safe and Comfortable

Press release
Source: BMW

The seat of a car is far more than just a simple frame structure with a piece of padded cloth or leather on top. On the contrary – the seat of a car these days must meet many different demands, with safety requirements constantly becoming stricter and the customer’s comfort expectations greater than ever before. And the seat should always offer the same ergonomic benefi ts for every occupant, with superior comfort and safety, regardless of the size, stature and weight of the driver.

Concept Bionic Seat in the car

The objectives of new seat concepts are clear: To win back more space inside the car, to reduce weight and cut back fuel consumption without making any concessions in terms of safety and comfort. Leaving aside the general requirements in series development, the development engineers are intentionally querying the seat structures used so far and follow a completely new approach.

"In everything we do, the human being sets the yardstick." (Matthias Franz, Seat Development Engineer)

The result of this research is three new seat concepts consistently oriented towards the anatomy of the human being and offering enormous potentials in saving weight:

• The Bionic Seat is inspired by nature. It offers its potential on and around the backrest with an improvement of 20 per cent over conventional seats.

• The Space Comfort Shell is derived from human body imprints and, using adaptive seat cushions, ensures an optimum cocooning effect around the occupants. The weight reduction on the research model is up to 50 per cent versus the standard seat.

• The Ergo Seat combines certain ideas carried over from both of these projects, but is closer to series production. It is up to two kilos lighter than the BMW sports seat (which is about 10 per cent) and offers greater functionality.

Seat concept Space Comfort Shell