The number, and what it actually measures
Ford Motor Company says it replaces 25% of the petroleum based polyol in the foam used for head restraints with soy oil, a plant based replacement for petroleum. Polyurethane foam, the cushioning material inside a car seat, is made mostly from a chemical called a polyol, blended with other ingredients. The 25% figure is the share of that polyol Ford replaces with soy, never the share of the whole foam and never the share of the whole seat. The material is standard equipment in every Ford and Lincoln vehicle built in North America, so a buyer gets it already installed, at no separate cost.
We are continuously looking for new ways to expand our use of bio-based foam, and head restraints are a perfect example.
Debbie Mielewski, technical leader, Ford Plastics Research. Source 1.
From 5% to 25%
Ford first used soy based polyol in seat foam in the 2008 Ford Mustang, at a 5% share of the polyol, according to the United Soybean Board, the industry group that helped fund the research. By June 2010, Ford says more than 2 million of its vehicles on the road already carried bio foam content. By 2011, Ford raised the share to 25% in head restraint foam, the newest part to carry the material. Ford researchers also built a 40% soy polyol foam in the laboratory, but no source states that formulation has shipped in a vehicle, so it remains a laboratory result, not a fact about a seat. No count outside Ford and the United Soybean Board, the group that helped fund it, has independently checked these figures.
How far the material has spread
This is a 2011 figure. It counts how many vehicles carried the feature, not how much of the head restraint itself is soy.
Show the numbers
| Head restraints | 75 |
| Seat cushions and backs | 100 |
By 2011, Ford says every vehicle it builds in North America uses soy based foam in the seat cushions and backs, 100% coverage. Head restraints, the newest application, reached 75% of Ford North America built vehicles that year. Over the first decade of the program, Ford says 18.5 million vehicles were produced with soy foam, using about 578 billion soybeans.
A small share of a big market
This is all polyurethane foam, every application, not automotive specific and not bio based specific.
Show the numbers
| United States | 3 |
| Worldwide | 9 |
Soy foam replaces petroleum in the seat cushioning Ford builds, but polyurethane foam itself is a huge market. The United States uses about 3 billion pounds of polyurethane foam a year, and the world uses about 9 billion pounds, across every application from furniture to insulation, not only cars, according to a Ford laboratory report. Ford also states other savings from the switch. The company says soy foam cuts its annual petroleum use by more than 3 million pounds and its annual carbon dioxide emissions by more than 15 million pounds, and cuts volatile organic compound emissions, chemicals that evaporate into the air, by 67% compared with petroleum based foam.
From our labs to our suppliers, incorporating renewable materials into auto parts takes a lot of work, but it's the right thing to do.
Bill Ford, Executive Chairman, Ford Motor Company. Source 5.