The vegan wave is rolling. The aggravated form of vegetarianism is well known not only to the consumption of meat and fish. Rather, it sees itself as an attitude towards life that avoids any food of animal origin, but which, in its most consistent form but also in daily life, rejects all products that are the result of the use of animals and animal experiments. And what about the cars?
Nobody knows how big the need really is. But in the US, the animal rights organization PETA has obviously been successful with electric pioneer Tesla and its managing director and founder Elon Musk convinced to offer the model X introduced in September 2015 in a vegan variant. In the all-electric SUV steering wheel, shifter and seat covers are executed on a vegan request with a synthetic leather. This new synthetic leather interior is only available in "Ultra White" for the time being.
Tesla can thus be sure of the support of animal rights activists. "With its 100 percent leather-free car, we can recommend Tesla Motors as a supplier of first-class vehicles that not only convince with environmentally friendly engines, but also score points with non-animal seat cushions," enthuses Harald Ullmann, the 2. Chairman of PETA Germany, downright. For the current Model S, however, as a vegan alternative, there are still only fabric covers.
By the way, vegan cars are not that rare. Since no animal experiments are necessary for the construction of the engine, chassis and body - no, the elk test does not count here - and the materials are not of animal origin, the focus is exclusively on the interior. And since real leather is rarely used in small and small cars for cost reasons alone, the vegan customer should definitely find what they are looking for here. Even if he has to be largely satisfied with the basic versions of the respective models, which only use fabric and synthetic materials in the interior. For example, he can find a list of vegan types from Audi, Dacia, Fiat, Hyundai, Jeep, Kia, Mazda, Peugeot, Renault, Seat, Skoda, Subaru, Suzuki, Toyota, Volvo and on the website "mag-mobil.de" Volkswagen, which however does not claim to be complete.
From the compact class upwards, the search for vegan cars is becoming more and more difficult, especially because a leather steering wheel is often standard in the better equipment and the closer you get to the upper class, the tanned animal skin also on shift and selector levers, in the dashboard or Almost without alternative is installed in the interior paneling. Not to mention leather seats. “In the smaller series up to the A4, a vehicle can only be configured with synthetic materials. From A6 this is hardly possible anymore, ”admits Audi spokesman Josef Schloßmacher.
After all, Mercedes offers in the upper middle class and the newly introduced E-Class with the material Artico, an artificial leather, which is in demand especially in the taxi industry - but not because of the consideration of the eating and living habits of drivers and passengers, but because of the high durability.
In the high-end luxury limousines, the whole thing may be simpler again, because in a Rolls-Royce or Bentley almost everything is done by hand anyway and the customer's desire with the appropriate obolus in return is quasi command. Even if you do not really like odor-neutral imitation leather in the noble interior ambience of a noble body.
However, non-vegan substances can also hide in places where they are not suspected. In fabric covers, for example, be mixed with wool, even in lubricants may be found animal fats. That really only helps investigative research at the suppliers. Vegans really do not have it easy.
