Bridge of Weir Leather in top gear

A SCOTTISH leather maker has supplied the seat coverings for a hybrid concept car, which was unveiled yesterday at the Geneva international motor show.

Bridge of Weir Leather, part of the Scottish Leather Group, supplied its “low-carbon” hides for the “Emerg-e” car, which was built by Infiniti, the luxury car division of Japanese manufacturer Nissan.

The electric vehicle was developed at Nissan’s European engineering centre at Cranfield, in Bedfordshire, as part low-carbon vehicle research programme funded by the UK government’s Technology Strategy Board. The car can go from nought to 60mph in just four seconds. Its aluminium and carbon-fibre construction means the car weighs only 1.6 tonnes. The car could enter production in 2016, Nissan said.

Bridge of Weir sales director Jamie Davidson said his firm’s leather had been chosen because of its environmentally-friendly production process, which reduces the amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere while the cow hides are being turned into leather.