Driven by compassion, the demand for faux leather interiors and vegan-friendly cars is snowballing
Every day, around the world, car manufacturers “breathe new life” into every one of the thousands upon thousands of newly assembled cars. These new cars are destined to their excited owners, who anticipate the qualities of their lives to improve as soon as they get seated behind the wheels of their brand new cars.
Every single day, around the world, slaughterhouses snuff the life out of millions upon millions of farm animals, their skins used to make clothing and accessories for humans, and to wrap the interiors of cars. The slaughtered animals—the rightful owners of these skins—often live in the most inhumane conditions before they are cruelly, painfully executed.
For every new car that boasts of genuine leather interiors, up to three cows’ lives are sacrificed. That, for me, is one of the most unfair equations the current industrial revolution has perpetuated, the result of the outdated thinking that genuine animal leather equates to luxury and good taste.
I used to think I was alone in feeling the pain whenever new cars with genuine leather interiors were being launched. I imagined that it was my beloved pet dog and cat’s skins used (because, really, what’s the difference between our pets and the poor cow, pig, chickens, and other animals? Whatever emotions our pets feel, they do, too).
I’m happy to see a growing number of buyers choosing cars with interiors using faux leather, or non-animal leather, or non-animal leather. And it’s quite telling that the reason they choose such is that they are appalled by the sheer cruelty and scale of the slaughter. Of course, there are other practical and environmental advantages to using faux leather, such that it retains less heat compared to genuine leather after prolonged exposure to the sun, and that non-animal leather doesn’t require the same massive, resource-sapping and climate change-inducing quantities of feed, pastureland, water, and fossil fuels needed by the livestock industry. For a new generation of “compassionate buyers”, however, the dealbreaker with genuine leather is its painful inhumanity, felt year in and year out by billions of innocent, defenseless, helpless beings who endure squalid living conditions, unbearable torture and beatings their whole lives before being dealt that one final fatal blow between the eyes or jolt of electricity.
After test-driving the Mazda2 sometime in 2015, I remember asking Hiroshima-based engineers about the possibility of using cruelty-free car parts. They revealed that they already were using synthetic leather on some parts of the car, particularly in the sides of the interiors. They explained that animal leather was still being used at the “touch points” of the seat and the driver, since most owners and drivers wanted the feel of genuine leather on these touch points. They added that buyers from the luxury markets still preferred all-genuine-leather interiors.
Four years later, the use of faux leather had noticeably spread in use, application, and markets. Traditionally, if you wanted to steer clear of genuine leather, you had no choice but to opt for lower-spec car models or entry-level trims. By 2019, that line of thought was changing as a number of luxury marques had begun showcasing vegan leather or cruelty-free interiors. Hannah Elliott of the Australian Financial Review wrote about the rise of sustainable vegan automobiles in 2019 in her story “The new status symbol for car interiors”. Filip Brabec, Audi’s vice president for product management, was quoted in the story as saying, “This is part of a bigger global trend that we see continuing to grow. It has to do with consumers understanding more and more the implications of how we inhabit the environment, and how and what we eat.”
The technology behind producing non-animal leather isn’t new, however. Back in the 1970s, the Italian-made Alcantara, a suede-like material, was already being produced and touted as a durable and long-lasting synthetic alternative to animal hide and was eventually used in private jets and by high-end European luxury cars such as Porsche, BMW “M,” Lamborghini (in its Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera), and Lexus LC500h. Other faux leather trademarks were developed over the years, such as Ferrari’s custom Mycro Prestige, Mercedes-Benz’s Artico man-made leather or the MB-Tex seat upholstery, and the T-Tec upholstery developed for Volvo Cars.
Today, the demand for faux leather continues to snowball. In January 2022, dicklovett.co.uk wrote: “Many car makers are now incorporating man-made alternatives to elements of vehicles previously upholstered using animal by-products, (and there are) features such as faux-leather steering wheels and trim made from natural fibers (that are becoming) a regular component in new vehicles as demand continues to grow.”
The website then listed the top 25 vegan-friendly automobile brands (as of December 2021): Ford, with 28 vegan-friendly car models; Honda, with 20; Nissan, 19; Smart, 17; Chevrolet and Kia, 15 each; Hyundai, 14; Mercedes-Benz, 13; Citroen and Toyota, 8 each; Subaru and Vauxhall, 6 each; BMW, Land Rover, Dacia and Renault, 5 each; Buick, GMC, Peugeot, Tesla, and Volkswagen, 3 each; and one model each for Fiat, MINI, Porsche, and Polestar.
To make a truly vegan car, leather isn’t the only animal-sourced material that must be replaced, however. According to UK-based Buy A Car (buyacar.co.uk), media displays often found on dashboards contain liquid crystals that may be based on cholesterol taken from animals. The rubber and plastic used to make tires may have been vulcanized and toughened using tallow (mutton fat), and even the steel used for a car’s frame may have been lubricated with animal fat.
We might never be able to take humans out of their cars, but slowly yet surely, we’re taking animals out of the cruel equation.
