(December 14, 2011) TOKYO — Mitsubishi Motors, working with EIDAIKAKO Co., Ltd., MRC Pylen Co., Ltd. and Toyota Tsusho Corporation, has developed a new floor mat made using plant-based bio-polyethylene (bio-PE) fibre to add to its lineup of proprietary plant-based "Green Plastic" products.

The company plans to start production of the new floor mats in the summer of 2012.

Bio-PE is a plant-based resin made using sugarcane molasses, a thick syrup produced in the refining of raw sugar. The company has developed the bio-PE fibre for use in floor mat piling with an eye toward reducing usage of petroleum-based plastics and cutting CO2 emissions.

As opposed to conventional petroleum-based floor mats, the fibre in this new floor mat has a core-sheath structure in which the bio-PE core is covered with conventional petroleum-based polypropylene (PP) sheath which allows it to meet the high levels of performance demanded of car floor mats, including abrasion and heat resistance.

In-house calculations indicate that the new bio-PE fibre floor mat achieves a 15 percent reduction in life-cycle CO2 emissions1 over a similar mat made using petroleum-based PP fibre.