The BMW Group, which includes the Mini brand of luxury compact cars, is announcing completely vegan interiors available next year for the first time
The rule used to be, that if you bought a luxury car it came with a leather interior, and the more cows that die in the name of street status the better.
Things have changed though, and a few years ago car manufacturers slowly started experimenting to the whims of a newer clientele, younger buyers with a more contemporary notion of luxury - brands like Maserati and Lexus got the revolution rolling with some synthetic suede here, a bit of wool there, and slight slivers of silk amidst all the animal hide, just to break the ice. The industry had to tread very carefully here because remember what happened the last time they tried to replace leather? Yes, that’s right, vinyl…
Technology and innovative bio-based materials available to us in 2022 mean that cars can now be greener to produce, with sustainability as the maxim in an industry-wide commitment to replace raw materials of animal origin.
Now BMW has stood up for its environmental responsibility, announcing for the first time completely vegan interiors coming in BMW and Mini models next year. To make the new-age materials ready for crucial touch-points of a vehicle, like the steering wheel and gear shifter, the development process wasn’t rushed and BMW is promising leather-like properties in 100 per cent leather-free cars.
This is just one step in BMW’s road to climate neutrality, or zero-carbon operability, by the year 2050. Replacing animal-origin materials is a big deal for car makers in order to reduce CO2 emissions, and a vegan interior has an 85 per cent improvement over a traditional leather-trimmed luxury car interior because processing cowhide is a highly energy-intensive and water-wasteful affair.
