The InEVitable Vodcast Episode 20: Volvo Color and Material Designer Rekha Meena
How does Volvo deliver a sumptuous, luxurious experience with recycled plastics, wool blends, flax fibers, and vegan leather?
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For the "sustainability" episode of The InEVitable, Jonny Lieberman and I chat with Volvo senior design manager Rekha Meena, live and direct from Volvo HQ in Gothenburg, Sweden. Meena was kind enough to stay after hours at work, while Jonny and I went in earlier than normal to the Podcast One studios in Beverly Hills.
And it was all worth it, as Meena gave us a master class on a variety of fascinating, wide-ranging topics, including what it's like to switch from designing hotel spaces and home furnishings to car interiors, to her move from India to Sweden, and her jump from a mass market brand (Suzuki) to a luxury nameplate (Volvo). And that's all before we dive deep into her work as a color and material designer at Volvo and explore her passion for creating stunning interiors that are not only rewarding for the senses, but sustainable for the planet.
Meena has spent 17 years in the automotive industry; the first six of those years with Maruti Suzuki, Suzuki's joint venture in her native India. At Suzuki, Meena used her masters degree in textile design from the National Institute of Design (India's top design school), to inject color and life into the popular, value-focused brand. She won numerous awards while at Suzuki, not just for design excellence, but for her skills as a manager as well.
Without question, her combination of skill, experience, and warmth (watch the vodcast!) made it impossible for Volvo to pass on a talent like Meena—but just how does one move roughly 4,000 miles north, from India's year-round warmth, to cold and dark Swedish winters? And perhaps even more jarring—from a mass-market Japanese brand famous for motorcycles to a premium brand known around the world for its commitment to safety? With a smile, as we find out.
In her time at Volvo, Meena has worked to develop the interiors for numerous concept and production vehicles, including the all-electric, autonomous Volvo 360C concept, the Polestar2, and Volvo production models including the S60, XC40 and C40. We spend much of our time diving into different surfaces and materials she selected for the C40, her latest project, specifically the special backlit trim panel that spans the passenger side of the dash. Partly made of recycled plastic, this translucent panel depicts a stylized topographical map of Sweden's Abisko national park that has a three-dimensional appearance when backlit.
The C40's carpet is made of 100 percent recycled soda pop bottles (PET plastic) and the Fjord Blue launch edition comes standard with a vegan, leather-free interior. This is because going forward, Volvo EVs will be leather-free, which also means when Volvo only sells EVs, none of its vehicles will use leather. That's pretty huge. So what will replace animal hides? Wool-blend fabrics, flax composites, silk, recycled plastics—these are just a few of the materials we discuss on this fascinating deep dive. Is it possible to deliver a sumptuous, luxurious interior without using rare woods, fancy leathers, and other unsustainable materials? Meena says yes, but it's clear in her explanation of how that it requires a knowledgeable team and disciplined, thoughtful approach.
Which is how Meena and Volvo are approaching a more earth-friendly way to design and produce cars— sustainability through a circular economy. What does this mean? In Volvo's own words: "Most companies (and people) still participate in a linear economy—you take raw material, make a product, use it, and in the end, throw it out as waste. A circular economy maximizes resources by designing products for durability, reuse, and recycling."
Volvo's target is to be a circular sustainable car company by 2040, which is admittedly a hard concept to grasp. The nearer term target for 2025 provides more insight; by then Volvo's aims to use 25 percent recycled or bio-based plastics, 40 percent recycled aluminum, and 25 percent recycled steel in the production of its cars.
Meena and her team focus on working within these parameters and finding new ways to deliver a premium looking and sumptuous-feeling interior, through the use of materials that are naturally derived, long lasting, and either recyclable or compostable at the end of their useful life.
Sound interesting? It is! But don't take my word for it, watch the vodcast right here or on our YouTube channel. If audio is your thing, download the podcast here or wherever you listen. If you like it, please tell your friends, share us on social media and don't forget to give us a five-star review.
I used to go kick tires with my dad at local car dealerships. I was the kid quizzing the sales guys on horsepower and 0-60 times, while Dad wandered around undisturbed. When the salesmen finally cornered him, I'd grab as much of the glossy product literature as I could carry. One that still stands out to this day: the beautiful booklet on the Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX that favorably compared it to the Porsches of the era. I would pore over the prose, pictures, specs, trim levels, even the fine print, never once thinking that I might someday be responsible for the asterisked figures "*as tested by Motor Trend magazine." My parents, immigrants from Hong Kong, worked their way from St. Louis, Missouri (where I was born) to sunny Camarillo, California, in the early 1970s. Along the way, Dad managed to get us into some interesting, iconic family vehicles, including a 1973 Super Beetle (first year of the curved windshield!), 1976 Volvo 240, the 1977 Chevrolet Caprice Classic station wagon, and 1984 VW Vanagon. Dad imbued a love of sports cars and fast sedans as well. I remember sitting on the package shelf of his 1981 Mazda RX-7, listening to him explain to my Mom - for Nth time - what made the rotary engine so special. I remember bracing myself for the laggy whoosh of his turbo diesel Mercedes-Benz 300D, and later, his '87 Porsche Turbo. We were a Toyota family in my coming-of-age years. At 15 years and 6 months, I scored 100 percent on my driving license test, behind the wheel of Mom's 1991 Toyota Previa. As a reward, I was handed the keys to my brother's 1986 Celica GT-S. Six months and three speeding tickets later, I was booted off the family insurance policy and into a 1983 Toyota 4x4 (Hilux, baby). It took me through the rest of college and most of my time at USC, where I worked for the Daily Trojan newspaper and graduated with a biology degree and business minor. Cars took a back seat during my stint as a science teacher for Teach for America. I considered a third year of teaching high school science, coaching volleyball, and helping out with the newspaper and yearbook, but after two years of telling teenagers to follow their dreams, when I wasn't following mine, I decided to pursue a career in freelance photography. After starving for 6 months, I was picked up by a tiny tuning magazine in Orange County that was covering "The Fast and the Furious" subculture years before it went mainstream. I went from photographer-for-hire to editor-in-chief in three years, and rewarded myself with a clapped-out 1989 Nissan 240SX. I subsequently picked up a 1985 Toyota Land Cruiser (FJ60) to haul parts and camera gear. Both vehicles took me to a more mainstream car magazine, where I first sipped from the firehose of press cars. Soon after, the Land Cruiser was abandoned. After a short stint there, I became editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Sport Compact Car just after turning 30. My editorial director at the time was some long-haired dude with a funny accent named Angus MacKenzie. After 18 months learning from the best, Angus asked me to join Motor Trend as senior editor. That was in 2007, and I've loved every second ever since.
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