Ford Introduces First Car with Soy-Based Seats

Ford Motor Company announced that soybased polyurethane foam will be used in seats in the 2008 Ford Mustang.

“Consumers may not realize that petroleum is a major ingredient in auto applications such as seating,” says Todd Allen, United Soy Board New Uses chair and a soybean farmer from West Memphis, Ark. “The move by Ford to replace petroleum in auto interiors with soybean oil is revolutionary for the automotive industry.”

The foam uses a 5 percent soy-based polyol and was incorporated into seat backs and cushions in the new Mustangs in August. The company plans to use soy for 40% of materials, which will also save Ford $26 million in annual costs.

Soy polyols have proven to perform as well or better than their petroleum counterparts when it comes to total weight, strength and durability.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology says soy polyols have only one-quarter the environmental impact of petroleumbased ingredients.

Soy-based polyurethane foam holds even more potential. Most automotive manufacturers are using 100 percent petroleum-based polyol foam. The annual demand for petroleum based polyols is 3 billion pounds in the United States and 9 billion pounds worldwide. On average each automobile produced uses 30 pounds of petroleum-based foam. That leaves a large potential market for soybased foam, and other automobile manufacturers are looking at soy-based products as well.