Car Companies Hit the Brakes on Cruelty: PETA Launches First Worldwide Roundup of Vegan Car Interiors

For Immediate Release:
May 13, 2024

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

Drivers, start your engines! PETA entities around the globe have just completed the first-ever roundup of vegan car interiors available worldwide to make shopping for cruelty-free vehicles easier than ever. The group surveyed 110 automotive brands—from BMW to Volvo—in the U.S., China, Europe, India, and Japan and uncovered a variety of makes and models that offer fully vegan interiors.

Consumers shopping for a new ride with seats and surfaces that tread lightly on the environment and aren’t made with cruelly obtained leather or wool can choose from an impressive variety of innovative natural, synthetic, and recycled animal-free materials. Highlights include the following:

• The BMW Veganza and Mercedes-Benz Artico feature synthetic vegan leather.
• The Fisker Ocean comes standard with a fully vegan interior made using recycled materials, including fishing nets, T-shirts, and rubber.
• The new-generation MINI models use Vescin, a 100% recyclable synthetic leather made with recycled materials.
• Polestar models feature WeaveTech—a dirt- and moisture-resistant material inspired by the “sporty look and feel” of wetsuits—and MicroTech, created using renewable vinyl and recycled polyester.
• Several new Volvo models feature a material called Nordico, made of recycled plastics, cork, and other organic materials.

“More carmakers than ever are recognizing the demand for animal-free options and meeting it by using inventive materials—from cork to discarded fishing gear,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA encourages compassionate people everywhere to ditch cruelty and hit the road in one of the many vegan vehicles on the market.”

A PETA exposé of JBS S.A. in Brazil revealed that calves are branded on the face and cows and bulls are electroshocked and beaten before being slaughtered to be made into leather car interiors. PETA entities’ investigations into 117 wool operations worldwide documented that workers punch, stomp on, kick, and throw sheep, who are left with gaping, bloody wounds caused by shearing.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.