Farewell to Leather Interior

Marco previously sent a small video of LECK 03+ interior, marveling at a large number of Alcantara materials (an advanced synthetic imitation leather, which is used by most supercars). Li wants to reply below: "This thing has been reduced to the cost of artificial leather. 」

Of course there are cheap ones in alcantara, but those are usually knockoffs. Exquisite workmanship, the cost is indeed higher than real leather, Alcantara and Ultrasuede are more expensive.

Alcantara is a kind of material and a brand. It can be said that it invented this material.

Just like today, many hundreds of thousands of mid-level cars also use Napa leather, but it is certainly not as good as Mercedes-Benz Napa leather.

Li Xiang should understand it, but he doesn't care too much about these things out of pure science and engineering thinking. He is more concerned and better at development, engineering, cost and management.

▲ Napa of Mercedes-Benz

Even if Alcantara is not mentioned, is genuine leather necessarily better than imitation leather? In fact, this concept is somewhat outdated.

Fashion began to reject leather as early as five years ago. Nowadays, Chanel, Prada, Armani and many other first-line luxury brands have joined the zero fur camp.

This trend has also begun to enter the automobile industry. Tesla announced last year that it would no longer use leather materials. At present, this task has not been officially completed. Models? S and Model? X's steering wheel is still leather, but it offers imitation leather options, while Model? The steering wheel of the 3 is completely leather, and there is no imitation leather option.

This move by Tesla has a lot to do with the initiative of animal protection organizations. In June last year, a member of the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals made this request to Musk, and Musk accepted it gladly. In fact, the synthetic imitation leather launched by Tesla a few years ago received good feedback.

Traditional car companies are not completely inactive, and new energy brands or sequences such as Polaris, e-tron and BMW I Series have also announced that they will no longer use leather materials. Only at present, it is still concentrated in the scope of new energy. In the field of fuel vehicles, manufacturers are still in the stage of "genuine leather is superior to imitation leather". For example, BBA only purchases imitation leather with relatively low price for entry-level models, while advanced models use genuine leather, such as Designo, Seidennappa, Merino, etc. in Napa or higher.

Interestingly, environmental organizations will ask Tesla to stop using genuine leather and make BBA less difficult. The main requirement of TAs for BBAs is still to reduce carbon emissions as soon as possible. For example, the Frankfurt Motor Show triggered protests before.

It seems that environmental organizations also understand that rice should be eaten bit by bit: OK, BBA, you solve the carbon emissions first, and then we will talk about leather materials.

Therefore, a large number of animals are still slaughtered innocently every year, and their skins are used to wrap car seats ranging from hundreds of thousands to hundreds of millions, just because the old concept thinks that leather is more advanced, luxurious, softer and more comfortable.

In fact, leather is by no means the most luxurious material (refer to Alcantara), nor is it the softest and most comfortable material.

The permeability of leather has always been a problem, and it is also an old problem in Napa. Sitting for a long time will stick to the skin, hot in summer and cold in winter. Think of us driving in shorts and T-shirts in summer, with dead cowhide or dead sheepskin on our skin. This is really disgraceful, and even civilization is not good.

▲ Did Mike describe his leather jacket in Growing Pains? |? Screenshot from Growing Pains

Cars have become one of the most unfriendly industries to animals, except for catering.

Some restaurants will force fish to swim against the current by means of electric shock traps and so on, making their meat more tender. Hairy crabs will be hungry for several days before cooking, tying and steaming in cold water. It seems that all people who pay attention to food have unique ways of cruelty to animals. When the French cook foie gras, they force the goose to eat a lot, and then tie its mouth to prevent vomiting, so that the goose will suffer from cirrhosis, the liver will become swollen and yellow, and the taste will become more delicate.

We never thought that our stutterers were treated so cruelly.

More ironically, I learned these things while listening to jokes, and they were shaken out as a burden. That's real black humor.

Those caterers are cruel. Autobots won't do that.

▲ Autobots defend their lives? |? Screenshot from "Transforming into king kong 2"

Speaking of which, someone may jump out and say, "You can't buy leather seats here, so you still eat meat?" Hypocrisy This is like someone suggesting not to eat dog meat, and someone will always say, "Chickens, pigs, cows and sheep are also animals. Don't you eat the same? It's so hypocritical. 」

Of course, this statement makes sense, but it always sounds wrong, just like someone criticized Schindler for saying, "You only saved these Jews, and there are still so many Jews." Why didn't you save them? It's so hypocritical. 」

Without business, there is no killing, and without business, there is less killing. Even if it is not thorough, it will not prevent us from doing what we can.

▲ The picture comes from the Internet.

The picture above is Coco? At first glance, there is no real leather material in the living room of Chanel Paris apartment. Sofa should be her favorite velvet material, and the sofa in the Ritz suite, where she has lived for 34 years, is also velvet material, which is extremely advanced.

(PS: the name velvet comes from a description, and this fabric itself has nothing to do with swans)

On advanced, comfortable and practical, genuine leather is no longer the best choice. Imitation leather is better in these aspects and more cost-effective. So, why stare at that outdated concept?

Text | Tiexi District Plum

Figure | Network

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.