For those of us who don't care if there is dead cow in our car interiors and used to just buy leather because it was easier to clean that fabric, they did offer an upgrade. I have owned things made with aniline leather. No thanks, it marks and stains like crazy. This is on top of having to think about what it is made of.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Leather vs. synthetic
- Thread starter DarkMatter
- Start date
Sunshine State
Automotive Enthusiast
I hate the thought of being in contact with the synthetic seat stuff while l love putting dead cow sandwiches in my stomach, I actually look forward to it. Never had the problem with it marking and staining like crazy though. You must be crazy hard on your car interior.
You might have been joking but the Koreans are upping their game with some higher quality interior materials, they see the advantage of a nice interior when it comes to sales. I wish Tesla would step up their game with the interior, they might not have to discount the P cars $30-$40k to sell them if they had special upscale interiors.
Last edited:
You never go to the garden store and accidentally get a bit of soil on your pants? I never got that mark completely out of the leather in another Mercedes.I hate the thought of being in contact with the synthetic seat stuff while l love putting dead cow sandwiches in my stomach, I actually look forward to it. Never had the problem with it marking and staining like crazy though. You must be crazy hard on your car interior.
Even that semi-aniline leather you were going on about is plastic coated, so you are in contact with synthetic materials unless you are in a coachbuilt car. Aniline leather is incredibly rare in cars because it's very hard to keep clean in typical use.
Sunshine State
Automotive Enthusiast
I was just kidding because of the silly comment you made about dead cows in your car. That’s about as silly as not eating salad made from dead plants or drinking from paper cups made from poor dead trees. If you read my comments I did say that semi-aniline has clear coating on it. The clear actually protects you from touching those dead cows
+1 on hard to keep clean. I had a car with Connolly hides in it. It smelled like a cross between money and old tobacco. I had to carefully clean the interior monthly to keep it clean looking. At least it never lost that smell.
If I don't get to touch them, it seems kind of meaningless to use it as a material, you know? I have a few pairs of unlined leather gloves, and they are fantastic. I wouldn't trust this interior material for gloves. Maybe some day my mind will be changed there.
CameronB
Member
Yes, I think that's correct. I talked to a Tesla employee who works in production in Fremont (while I was checking out his Model 3 at a nearby Supercharger) and he said that in all the BOMs and such, it refers to the new seating as "PUR" which he understood to be short for polyurethane.
There were rumors going around before that Tesla was using Ultra Fabrics brand of PUR but not sure if that was ever confirmed (or disproved)?
Something like: White Wash | ultrafabrics
jelloslug
Active Member
I actually have a swatch card of that material. The material feels the same but I think the grain texture is different.
CameronB
Member
Cool, @jelloslug . Though I suppose it's entirely possible that Ultrafabrics could supply Tesla with a custom-textured version of their PUR.
Anyhow, it's hard to know unless someone who works with Tesla's suppliers talks about it.
Anyhow, it's hard to know unless someone who works with Tesla's suppliers talks about it.
Xminus6
Member
Yes. I've had much worse, more plasticky-feeling coated cowhide seats than the "Vegan Leather" seats in our X and our 3. The gray leather in the S seems like it was uncoated since it picked up stains so easily. I'm perfectly fine with the Vegan Leather material from here on out. Heavily coated leather feels faker than this stuff, ironically.
Several years ago my wife and I had a pair of BMW 5 series (530i and an M5). The former had the "Dakota" leather and the latter "Nappa". The Dakota looked nearly new at 100k miles, but was a firmer leather. The Nappa was softer, but at 50k miles already required a bolster be replaced as it had worn through. No free lunch.
As an aside, I would assume the new "Vegan" seats are some kind of polyurethane or whatever and perhaps made using oil if they are like most plastics...of course I have no idea and am too lazy to check!
As an aside, I would assume the new "Vegan" seats are some kind of polyurethane or whatever and perhaps made using oil if they are like most plastics...of course I have no idea and am too lazy to check!
Sunshine State
Automotive Enthusiast
They may have removed the term from the website after they discontinued leather. In the past it was in the white description “White Vegan Leather”
Do you have a guess about when they had it there? I went all the way back to mid-2016 on the Wayback Machine, and all I could find was when they used to call it Ultra White when the leather was still available. I've probably gone in to the Design Studio a few hundred times over the last five years and never recall it mentioning anything about being vegan.
Sunshine State
Automotive Enthusiast
It may not be in the design center if you can’t find it there but Tesla discribed it somewhere as the most durable seats in showroom cars and I’m pretty sure they coined the phrase Vegan. I’m not seeing the “most durable” either so it must be somewhere else on the site.
Donald Watson coined the term vegan in 1944 when he co-founded the Vegan Society in England.
The phrase "White seats are stain resistant, easy to clean, and perform best of all seats during high volume test drives. Tesla Recommended." appeared in the Design Studio late last year, and was removed somewhere around Q3 when they started describing all the interiors as '(Color) Premium Interior'. I rummaged around a few older captures of the site and could not find the word Vegan anywhere. At one point you had to special-order the car if you wanted it to be Vegan, even with the new seat fabric. The reporting at the time captures it: Electric Cars Aren’t Enough. Tesla Is Now Going Vegan
I'm pretty certain at this point that Tesla themselves has never made noise about their interiors being Vegan on their site. It seems possible that all the interiors are now that way, though, as at least in my July build with ultra white the steering wheel doesn't feel leather. The black material on it feels really nice in the hand, just not like any leather steering wheels I've ever had in cars. I really hope it holds up as well as they say it will.
Sunshine State
Automotive Enthusiast
I understand they didn’t actually invent the word Vegan and know how Google works to see the definition but I’m still not sure Tesla didn’t attach the name to the product they were putting in their cars. I know the sales team have been using the term but would have to do more searching of the Tesla site and old Elon model X videos to see where it started.
With the exception of the steering wheel. In order to get Vegan steering wheel you must request it.
Similar threads
