Mercedes-Benz has unveiled its vision for a future luxurious touring sedan — complete with an environmentally friendly cork interior.

The stunning F 700 concept car made its international debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the world’s largest motoring industry exhibition.

Mercedes-Benz promotes the overall environmental friendliness of the vehicle with one of the most striking features being a natural interior of leather and cork.

The motoring giant said the car’s innovative and spacious interior design enables an entirely new and very comfortable mode of travel.

“With the F 700, Mercedes-Benz shows what the big touring sedan of the future will look like. It offers environmentally compatible mobility combined with utmost comfort and an effortlessly superior drive,” said Professor Dr. Herbert Kohler, responsible for Group Research & Advanced Engineering Vehicle and Powertrain at DaimlerChrysler.

Mercedes-Benz describes the car’s interior as “a harmonic balance between technology and nature” with open-pored cork used for the door liners, the roof lining and the centre console, which runs all the way through the interior.

Due to the use of natural materials like leather and cork and a harmonious brown and beige colour scheme, the interior makes an elegant and light impression and appears very upmarket with a strong quality feel.

Cork is undergoing a renaissance in commercial applications with many companies turning to the unique natural material for a wide range of state-of-the-art products.

For example, Griffin Technology, a company that manufactures accessories for Apple’s popular iPod and iPhone, recently released a hard-shell natural cork case for the iPhone.

And Portugal's postal authority, CTT, has issued the world’s first postage stamp made entirely from cork.

Designed by Portuguese engraver Joao Machado, the stamp depicts a cork tree on a hill and has a face value of one euro.

Made from wafer-thin ‘paper cork’ and just 0.35mm thick, every stamp is unique due to the cellular structure of cork.

The initial print run of 230,000 sold out in a matter of months as collectors worldwide quickly snapped up the remarkable postage stamp.

In his role as chairperson of the Portuguese Cork Association (APCOR), Corticeira Amorim chairman and CEO António Amorim attended the official unveiling of the stamp at Lisbon parliament.

During his presentation Mr Amorim outlined how the cork industry was diversifying into building, aeronautics, automobile manufacturing and other sectors.

At the start of this year Corticeira Amorim announced the creation of Amorim Cork Research, a business unit designed to ‘meet the innovation challenge’.

Amorim Cork Research is exploring new applications for cork including the development of new products and innovative commercial solutions.

Amorim has added a new high performance cork stopper for sparkling wine to its extensive product portfolio.

Called Spark One, the innovative closure is designed for ‘everyday bubbles’ and was unveiled at the 22nd SIMEI exhibition in Milan, Italy.

Staged biennially, SIMEI is the world’s biggest oenological and bottling equipment exhibition. Amorim Cork Italy established an impressive stand at the exhibition, portraying an exclusive club with a Spark One theme.

Carlos Santos, the general manager of Amorim Cork Italy, said more than 1000 guests visited the Amorim stand where they enjoyed the opportunity to try special wines with gourmet Italian food while learning about Spark One.

Developed specifically for early consumption sparkling wines, Spark One is made entirely from cork micro-particles. It provides excellent mechanical performance, is highly robust and very easy to use.

Importantly, Spark One guarantees strong pressure resistance — possibly the most important factor for sparkling wine closures — and an excellent level of cleanliness thanks to Amorim’s exclusive ROSA process.

Developed over many years of research, ROSA removes the contaminant 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA) from cork using ‘controlled steam distillation’.

Spark One is also environmentally friendly. Like all natural cork closures, it is renewable, recyclable and biodegradable and plays an important role in carbon dioxide retention.

For further information visit www.sparkone.net

Amorim has introduced Spark One for ‘everyday bubbles’.