Don’t look now, but there’s real money to be made in faux, or synthetic or man-made, leather. While global trends show the production and use of animal-based leather in automobiles (and other commodities) are on the decline, alternatives are on the rise.
The reason for this isn’t purely economic, but one that is tinged with compassion. Traditional animal-based leather, which was, and still is, considered a luxury in the automotive industry, involves the slaughter of animals, mainly cows. Contrary to popular belief, leather is not a by-product of the meat industry but exists on its own, slaughtering 2.29 billion animals all over the world every year. As more buyers have started finding out how animal-based leather is really acquired and processed, and the pain and torture that the real owners of these animal skins experience, many have opted for faux leather instead.
In 2016, a car executive of a European brand told me that some European car brands have shifted their use to faux leather because of the growing public clamor for cruelty-free options. Even Autocar’s James Atwood reported in 2020 how 7-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton asked his employer Mercedes-Benz to phase out animal-based leather entirely.
Mercedes-Benz has offered faux leather Artico for its vehicles since 2003. Toyota, meanwhile, uses SofTex. Ferrari uses the Mycro Prestige vegan leather option on some models. BMW uses SensaTec animal-free leather. This year, fully vegan interiors will be available for both BMW and MINI models for the first time. Lexus has NuLuxe. Porsche, Lamborghini, Maserati, Land Rover, and Alfa Romeo use Alcantara on some of their models. The all-electric Porsche Taycan has a vegan version with Race-Tex microfiber, a textile partly made from recycled polyester fibers, while Volvo has its T-Tec.
In 2019, Tesla founder Elon Musk announced that all models’ interiors would be free of animal products and made from cloth or vegan leather instead. Climate-friendly living website LeafScore confirmed that since then, every Tesla car interior has been retrofitted to be free of animal products.
It was reported on Aug. 14 that the global faux leather market, which was estimated to be worth $63.3 billion in 2020, is expected to become a $78.5 billion industry by 2025, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.4 percent during the forecast period, per the recent study by MarketsandMarkets Research.
However, Future Market Insight, in its July 28, 2023 report, placed the current worth of the vegan leather industry at a more modest $29.24 billion. Nonetheless, it still predicted substantial growth for the next 10 years, as it anticipates the global synthetic leather market to balloon to $50.01 billion by 2033, with a CAGR of 6 percent.
Regardless of the figures, the trend is unmistakable. The vegan leather industry is enjoying unprecedented growth, and billions of dollars are being made while billions of animals are spared. That’s a win-win for humans and animals, if you ask me.
Opting for vegan leather doesn’t necessarily sacrifice quality in favor of compassion, either. Synthetic leather has been found to be similar to the quality and durability of traditional leather. VegNews reported that today’s vegan leather is no longer the PVC we once knew—it is now made from recycled materials and food waste, from plastic bottles to pineapple leaves.
Recently, high-profile global luxury brand Audi, which has aggressively campaigned for its electric vehicle the e-Tron GT-disclosed that the model does offer leather-free packages, in which case the seats are upholstered either with a combination of artificial leather and Kaskade, or with a mixture of artificial leather and Dinamica. Kaskade and Dinamica are made of polyester fibers sourced from plastic bottles, textiles, or residual fibers from selvages. e-Tron models also offer carpets and mats made from Econyl, a nylon fiber weave derived from surplus fabrics and carpets, and even fishing nets.
In 2021, Brian Afuang, corporate communications head of PGA Cars Inc, told me: “As PGA Cars pioneers electromobility in the Philippines with the introduction of the Porsche Taycan… as well as the scheduled arrival later this year of the all-electric Audi e-tron SUV, we would also like to highlight not just both models’ electric power plants, but also their availability to be ordered with interiors which are free from leather and which use other recycled materials.”
Recently, Mercedes-Benz, as revealed by Auto Nation Group (ANG), which is its official distributor in the Philippines, recently brought in the new GLC 200 4Matic mild hybrid luxury SUV. All seats, including the heated front, are Artico artificial leather, a man-made substitute for animal hides.
Lexus Philippines’ brand manager Jade Sison recently told me that Lexus does offer models—usually the executive variants—with synthetic leather in the local market. She adds: “Our RZ battery electric vehicle has ultrasuede for its interior. It is a sustainable suede partly using biomaterials and recycled PET.”
BMW Philippines’ iX3 represents what BMW sustainability is all about. In January 2023 I was able to interview BMW Philippines president Spencer Yu who said that in recent years, more and more man-made materials are coming in. He cited seat upholstery as an example, and said that BMW is now using SensaTec materials.
Yu said that “there is an increasing use of man-made upholstery in the BMW automobile range. He added: “We are able to provide man-made seat upholstery that has the same suppleness, the same feel as leather but all reducing the carbon footprint. No cows were sacrificed in the making of the car seats.”
Asked if BMW buyers in the Philippines will be convinced to buy into the SensaTec upholstery for reasons of sustainability and durability, Yu said” “Since this material has been present in our vehicles for some time – either as standard or as an option – we are confident that customers can attest to the sustainability and durability of it.”
Though BMW’s eco appeal includes cruelty-free leather seats, its steering wheel is still Nappa leather. So I asked if there will come a time when the iX3 also comes with a steering wheel wrapped in animal-free materials such as Alcantara. The reply was: “Right now, we do not have any information as to when specific portions of our electrified vehicles will be produced with eco-friendly materials. What we can tell you is that BMW i is working towards reducing as much carbon footprint as possible in every car that they produce.”
Eleven years ago, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations declared that annually, the global leather industry slaughters more than a billion animals. Now that technology and a growing market preference for cruelty-free leather has opened a very wide window of business opportunity, shouldn’t the automotive industry close the door on all that “blood money” gained from animal leather, and embrace vegan leather entirely?
