IAC Premium Interior Solutions Showcased on Leading New Luxury SUVs

Dusseldorf/Mannheim, Germany (March 18, 2015) – Superior craftsmanship as a differentiator in interiors is a sustained upward trend in premium vehicles. Lending its excellence in interiors design, International Automotive Components (IAC) delivers extensive content on many of Europe’s most popular Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) like the all-new Land Rover Discovery Sport, Volvo XC90 and Audi Q7.

“The look-and-feel of the interiors directly influences consumer purchasing decisions for new vehicles, especially in the luxury SUV segment which revolves around a sophisticated driving experience,” said Marcus Nyman, SVP Commercial for IAC in Europe. “According to recent PwC Autofacts research and analysis, European production volumes of four by four and sport utility vehicles (SUV) are expected to go up 37 percent to 4.8 million units by 2018. The combination of best-in-class customization capabilities for mass production, superior craftsmanship and state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities builds the value proposition IAC offers its customers in this growing market.”

IAC leverages its vertically integrated process and engineering capabilities to efficiently produce a broad range of tailor-made variants to accommodate increasing demand for customized interiors. At IAC Halewood (UK), for example, only 5% of the cockpits are produced with identical specifications. The plant hosts one of the industry’s most comprehensive wrapping lines capable of handling – in a single process – both leather and vinyl for instrument panels and center consoles for the Evoque and the new Discovery Sport. The two vehicles represent up to four million potential combinations of individual interior specifications. With these sophisticated capabilities, IAC supports Jaguar Land Rover’s specific requirement to produce a virtually unique vehicle every 82 seconds.

IAC’s integrated development approach also provides for extensive in-house materials expertise, especially with regard to premium materials such as natural fiber and leather. The company’s Halewood and Lozorno facilities are centers of excellence in Europe for the development and manufacture of leather-wrapped instrument panels, center consoles, and doors for European premium vehicles.

“Carefully crafted leather-wrapped parts is a specialized production skill that is not widely available. Through our centers of excellence and extensive internal training programs, IAC ensures these skills are readily available worldwide in support of global customer programs,” said Mike Clowry, Vice President of Engineering for IAC in Europe.

“IAC facilities worldwide operate according to the state-of-the-art, lean IAC Production System (IPS), which together with our local footprint in each region is an asset to consistently provide superior quality for global vehicle platforms and build-to-print projects” said Brad Zak, SVP European Operations at IAC.

The interior of the Discovery Sport features IAC’s handcrafted instrument panel, center console and complete cockpit and is produced, assembled and delivered in sequence from IAC’s Halewood (UK) just-in-time plant, which also produces and assembles the

cockpit and the overhead system for the highly successful Range Rover Evoque.

The Volvo XC90 instrument panel, door panels, pillars, luggage trim, concealing panels and complete cockpit are supplied by IAC’s Låssby (Gothenburg, Sweden) operation, located in close proximity to Volvo’s Torslanda assembly plant. IAC Låssby opened its gates as a green field facility in 2009 and quickly developed into a group benchmark for quality and lean manufacturing.

Audi’s Q7 showcases IAC leather door panels and trunk side trim supplied by the IAC Lozorno (Slowakia) plant near VW’s premium SUV production hub in Bratislava.