Q: Given the current trend in both EV and ICE cars to move away from animal interiors, the premium offering is often a “piled” fabric such as microfleece or even wool. Will these materials retain their looks or would traditional woven fabrics prove more durable? – Peter C, Co Wexford
A: While this is not specifically a question on electric vehicles, it is relevant to the wider attempts by car firms to reduce their environmental impact.
While that’s very commendable, there is a distinct problem with so-called “vegan” interiors, and that’s that their vegan-ness only goes so far.
Carmakers have significantly scaled up their investments in materials other than the usual hard-wearing, school-trouser-like material common on more affordable cars, or the traditional leather of more expensive cars.
Leather is seen as passé now, as there are concerns over animal cruelty in its sourcing. With the rise of EVs, carmakers are really pushing out the marketing boat to boast about their environmental consciousness when it comes to the trim and fabric of their seats and cabins.
Tesla has been offering “vegan” leather alternatives for years now, and VW introduced its ArtVelours soft-touch microfleece material with the first ID3 as a leather alternative and one that can be, in part, made from recycled plastics.
Fiat uses an artificial yarn called Seaquel, which is made in part from recovered and recycled ocean plastics and fishing nets. Kia follows suit with some of its interior materials being made from recovered ocean plastics.
All of this sounds good, but the “vegan” part can be put to bed. Vegan leather isn’t leather, it’s vinyl, and like all vinyl it’s a byproduct of the petrochemical industry. It’s vegan in the sense that no animal was harmed in its manufacture, but not vegan in the way it’s actually fitted to the car, as most adhesives are still animal-sourced.
Peta – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals – says man-made materials are certainly the way to go. “It’s great to see so many of the biggest names in the automobile industry fast-track the use of eco-friendly vegan fabrics that no animal had to die for – like apple and grape leather – in their vehicles. But some companies are still in the slow lane,” a Peta spokesperson told The Irish Times.
“An estimated 35 million cow hides are used per year to create interiors for the automotive industry, making it one of the biggest co-financiers of the farming and slaughtering of cows.
“On average, it takes the skin of three cows to cover the interior of a standard car. Some vehicles require as many as 15. The production of animal-derived materials is as toxic to the planet as it is cruel to animals. Vegan fabrics – even synthetics – have a far smaller environmental footprint, and many are sustainable, innovative, and durable.”
As Polestar points out, that’s all true but it doesn’t quite tell the whole story. Polestar currently offers both man-made vinyl “leather” as standard in its cars, and more traditional cowhide as an option.
According to Polestar, this because “choosing leather means that the customer has to make an active choice, and pay more for the leather” thereby, presumably, shuttling more customers towards the more sustainable material.
However, if you do choose leather in your Polestar, the company claims that it’s still a sustainable choice as it sources all of its hides from Bridge of Weir Leather in Scotland, which in turn takes its material only from local beef herds.
Because the cows are going to be killed for their meat, not their hides, the leather is effectively a byproduct and would actually be thrown away were it not used for Polestar’s interior trim. So, in this specific instance, picking leather is actually also reducing overall waste, even if Peta would find the killing of cows for food equally distasteful.
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Would wool be a more sustainable, more ethical choice? After all, sheep are not killed for their wool, and Land Rover offers a wool-and-synthetic material blend, known as Kravdat, which is softer and more warm and welcoming than leather, and which doesn’t suffer from leather’s cold-in-the-winter, hot-in-the-summer problems. We’ve tested it in some Range Rover products and can vouch for its comfort and luxuriousness.
However, here again Peta raises issues: “Sheep have been selectively bred to produce far more wool than is natural. Once they’ve outlived their usefulness to the industry, they’re sent to slaughter.”
When it comes to “vegan” leather, there’s nothing new in the world. Ford was using a man-made leather substitute in Model Ts in the 1920s, having struck a deal with the huge DuPont chemical company for a material called Fabrikoid, which was actually cotton covered with a form of cellulose.
Most synthetic leather substitutes are based on petrochemicals, as are all forms of modern plastics, so while animal harm has certainly not taken place, “vegan” leather is still not ideal for the environment.
While the likes of VW, Fiat, Kia, and Polestar may make great claims for their use of recycled material in their leather substitutes, recycled material only makes up a certain percentage of the thread used. We are still a long way from the truly recycled and recyclable “circular car”.
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As for wear and tear, the story is mixed. A cheaply-made synthetic leather substitute will be far less robust and more prone to abrasion and tensile damage than real leather.
Equally, if damaged, real leather can be patched or revived. Vinyl’s less robust than that. Very high quality “vegan” material, such as BMW’s Sensatec, is reckoned to be at least as good as leather when it comes to wear and tear, although Mercedes’ own Artico fake leather is thought to be less long-lived, a fact which is theoretically offset by its lower upfront cost.
Some motor industry experts have said that in all the years of developing new vehicle interior materials, nothing has yet been found that can match real leather’s combination of wear and tear resistance, luxurious feel and suppleness.
Many of the “vegan” leather interiors that we see these days have a noticeably rubber feel to the upholstery.
Volkswagen’s ArtVelours fabric – closer to the material used on a high-end fleece jumper – is another option, and one that moves away from trying to imitate leather, and instead is just a soft-touch cloth.
In our experience, it’s less luxurious in feel than Alcantara – which is actually a brand name, as well as being a very durable man-made suede substitute – but it does seem to be proving hard-wearing and long-lived, at least so far.
