LEONI LIMEVERSE® thereby reduces the use of crude oil-based insulation materials. The fossil raw material of crude oil is thereby spared, significantly improving the products’ carbon footprint. These new automotive cables nevertheless continue to meet all of the automotive industry’s requirements. Plastics that are used for the insulation of cables and cords consist mostly of the raw material of crude oil. Measures to improve the sustainability of our products were previously limited to less use of raw materials, for instance by miniaturising cable and recycling. LEONI is now going a step beyond and complementing these conventional means with plastics made from renewable raw materials. In addition, the Company uses plastics whose natural raw material input is proven to conform to the standardised analytical method for determining the bio-based content under ASTM D6866.

Alongside purely bio-based materials, mass balance plastics are also used. These plastics are synthesised in the chemical industry’s reactors by partially substituting crude oil-based raw materials with bio-based ones. Depending on the quantities added, there are then also certain proportions of organic material available to the customer that can be scaled to the corresponding products by applying the ‘mass balance’ (similar to the principle of green electricity).

LEONI LIMEVERSE® took the decision in favour of these solutions against the backdrop of the automotive industry’s high requirements of the cables. They are a vehicle’s nervous system that must be able to safely function even after more than ten years. The use of exclusively mechanically or chemically recycled materials is presently reaching its limits: alongside the loss of mechanical and thermal properties there is, in particular, the question as to the sources of the recycled material. Ultimately, the material must be reliably available in sufficient quantity and stable quality. To ensure the vehicles’ safety, this would involve having to test each lot under the automotive industry’s extensive testing procedures. LEONI LIMVERSE® solutions are already contributing to a major improvement in carbon footprint without generating complex interventions in processes and availability of materials. This portfolio of cables is already available to the car industry. Depending on the cable type and material used, it is possible to cut CO₂ by up to 50% compared with conventional vehicle/charging cables. From the single-core automotive cable to multi-core sensor cables, coaxial and data transmission cables through to charging leads and extruded flat conductors – LIMEVERSE® covers all applications. Alongside PVC compounds, the LIMEVERSE® concept also covers polypropylene (PP) and TPE-U, temperatures of up to 125°C thus being safely assured.