REMAT - the sustainable product line of Tesla Outfitters
Tesla Outfitters started very small in 2021 and has since grown into one of the most well-known Tesla accessory companies in Germany. While the focus of the first years was on surviving and building the company, we have now reached the point where we can intervene in the innovation of our products ourselves.
Thus, this year we used customer feedback and further developed many of our products, such as the trunk dog mat, with our production partner. We also went through several prototype phases for the first Tesla camping tent in Europe this year and were able to get great feedback from our test customers.
Collaboration with our Production Partners
We do not have the option to produce in Germany or to produce our wide range of products ourselves. But we have now found production partners who understand our vision and support us. Together with these partners, we are now working to make the Tesla accessory product range more sustainable. The process will take a long time, and we cannot replace all products. But we are taking this path step by step.
CEO Alex traveled to China at the beginning of 2023 to find innovative solutions to make products more sustainable. This visit with our partners set things in motion. During the time on site, we were able to find an excellent material that we can use for our all-weather rubber mats and other products. We are talking about recycled Thermoplastic Elastomers, in short: TPE.
Products Made from 100% Recycled Material - Is That Even Possible?
Of course, we have checked and researched our materials again and again. Because we didn't want to use recycled material for our rubber mats just because it's sustainable, but also to ensure that the floor mats become durable and of high quality. Now that we have achieved this goal, we want to be transparent about where the recycled material for our products comes from.
In China, production sites are not distributed across the country as they are here. Instead, products for specific industries are concentrated in certain cities. This creates entirely new possibilities.
In our case, we are talking about Guangzhou - the city of "Automotive Accessories". There, thousands of products for the automotive industry are manufactured. Some of the materials frequently used there are Thermoplastic Elastomers - TPE for short.
In production using the injection molding process, material often remains. This is because most products do not come out of the injection molding process finished, but trimming must take place to make edges nice and remove excess material.
Our production partner buys this waste material and shreds it. Due to the special property of Thermoplastic Elastomers to be reused 100% multiple times within a production process, this now offers the opportunity to manufacture products from fully recycled material.
Due to the enormous size of production of products for all kinds of industries in China, a lot of this material is generated. Exactly these leftovers have to be disposed of in the case of plastics or rubber, since most plastics cannot be remelted or can only be partially remelted. This is not the case with TPE, however.
And exactly this remaining TPE can not only be recycled once, but several times. Studies by leading German TPE producers have shown that even after recycling the material eight times, more than 85% of the quality of the original material is retained.
Of course, one wonders why then not more products are made from this material. However, the answer is simple: The environmental awareness that we have here in Germany simply does not exist there. In addition, of course, only products that require the typical material properties of this material can be made from it.
Only through Alex's trip to China were we able to take this step towards sustainability. The result: Our rubber mats for the new 2024 Tesla Model 3 Highland will now be made from 100% recycled TPE. A big step for a small company.
Our Definition of Sustainability
One approach by Elon Musk has influenced us a lot: "Sustainability through utilization". Tesla sees sustainability in such a way that products that we produce are used more and thus sustainability is achieved. So Tesla wants to build autonomous robotaxis so that not only the car owner, but many passengers can use the same Tesla every day.
We are now also pursuing this approach for the first sustainable Tesla accessory products. Instead of constantly setting up new additional productions for each new vehicle, manufacturing new injection molds, and shipping raw materials to the production site, we are taking a different path. We use existing molds that are also used by other companies, recycle material that is leftover on site, and thus reduce our footprint to the transport route from China. But here too, we try to transport as sustainably as possible by train or ship.
What’s Next?
The rubber mats were just the first step for us. We are already working on converting many more products to recycled material. For this, it is also important that our customers can see at a glance which products are made of recycled material. And that is exactly why we have now introduced our REMAT product line with the green sign. REMAT stands for recycled material.
We are realists. We won't become a 100% sustainable company overnight. Instead, we try to improve things according to our size, on which we can have an influence.
If you have further ideas that can be implemented by small companies, please contact us - we are eager to learn. And if you would like to support our plans and offer our REMAT products, we would love to hear from you.
