A New Zealand company reckons it has an effective and cost-efficient solution to virus protection for vehicle drivers and occupants as we move down through Covid-19 Alert Levels – and beyond.
Auckland-based RVE has created a range of “Automotive PPE” designed for business, fleet and emergency service vehicles. It includes slip-on vinyl seat covers and an innovative “driver bubble” – a screen that shields driver from passenger and vice versa.
RVE is perhaps best known for its sometimes-outrageous enhancement packages (it created Holden’s monster Colorado Rox concept truck, for example), but its core business is upholstery.
Its work with auto-PPE has now gained it Essential Business status during the Level 4 lockdown.
RVE business development director Jim Stanners says the project started from concern about RVE’s own employees, but the company has rapidly realised “there’s a market out there that almost nobody [in NZ] has thought about.
“You’ve got everybody from Fulton Hogan working on motorways and carrying two or three people in a vehicle, to tradespeople with apprentices that they potentially can’t take in a van.”
Stanners says this level of extra in-car protection will likely last long beyond NZ’s current Alert Levels.
“In areas faced with outbreaks like SARS in the past, we see these trends already ingrained.
"Countries such as Singapore, China and Malaysia have protocols in the public spaces and the transport industry that other places have not considered.”
The idea is to provide occupant protection that facilitates a good working environment but is also easily cleaned.
The “driver bubble” is the most intriguing. It’s a transparent PVC shield that encapsulates the driver rather than sealing off an entire section of the cabin.
“Driver and passenger are protected, but they don’t have to wear masks and they can still talk and see each other through the screen,” says Stanners.
Stanners says one of the big challenges with this type of product is allowing space for airbags to deploy. RVE gets around this issue by using the seat head-restraint mounting as a secure attachment point, with the screen simply clipped out to the side.
RVE created prototype screens using a Ford Ranger ute and Hyundai iLoad van at its Auckland workshop just a few days ago. Slightly different designs are required for different vehicles, but Stanners says with two-to-three alternatives for SUVs, the same for vans and so on, most vehicles are covered.
The vinyl seats are a lot closer to an ordinary day at the office for RVE; the company does a lot of leather upholstery for customer cars.
While it’s possible to simply reupholster a car interior in easily cleaned vinyl, that’s a more permanent solution for taxis and the like. RVE’s auto-PPE solution is a set of slip-on covers, which are much more practical and durable than the disposable soft plastic used by garages or panel beaters, but are more versatile than a permanent change to vinyl.
RVE has kept it simple, says Stanners: “We looked at medical grade material, which is good but adds cost. And you can’t cover the [side/seat] airbag without getting the seams certified, so we just trimmed around the edge so that it pops out of the way for the airbag.
“We’ve also introduced quick release fasteners to assist in exiting the vehicle in case of fire or accidents.”
Indicative cost of the screen is $500-700 depending on the car. RVE is also developing truck options now.
The vinyl seat covers will cost $400-600 – around half the cost of getting the whole car permanently reupholstered.
RVE has moved to register its screen mounts, but it’s ready to go with the new range now.
“We just want to get [the product] out there,” says Stanners.
“There’s definitely a need. Every motor trimmer in NZ could have their own slice of this and help out in their own town.”
