Buy European

Oh, good. My first instinct was that they’d use that plastic fake leather stuff. I really dislike fake leather. It’s not very durable and really difficult to mend when damaged. And it’s so very sticky in summer. Denim sounds like an amazing option though.

Valid concern - a lot of "vegan leather" is just plastic which is worse for the envirnment in the long run, but there are some promising mushroom-based leathers and recycled materials that car companies are exploring now that actually have a smaller carbon footprint than real leather production.

No no, it’s going to be VEGAN leather (plastic) 😀

Agreed. My mum's car and my boss's car have leather seats and I hate it. Both of my cars (and almost every other car I've ever driven in) have fabric seats, and they're infinitely more comfortable. And I presume considerably cheaper.

and crack after a few years of use. and stain depending on what gets on 'em. great if you want to burn your kids asses I guess.

Leather car seats might be very appealing for those with young children, as it's far easier to clean food, drinks, and dirt, off of leather than cloth.

They last essentially forever if maintained even just a little bit and is a good quality leather. I've been in cars from the 70's with the original leather seats in amazing condition.

I don't personally care that much what the material is in my car, but I've never had good experiences with fake leather, I'd rather honestly have any other fabric. And those other fabrics are very common already in cars!

Leather feels much nicer than cloth. I prefer my seating surface smooth.

I don't remember the last time I had a car without heated seats. I've had a car as old as 2003 (bought for 3k) that had ventilated seats. The are also ways to make sure your car is the right temperature by the time you get in it.

One advantage is that they are usually much easier to clean, stains that soak into regular fabric can often just be wiped off from leather, however I do believe it's usually about leather having a more "premium feel".

Besides I like to believe that humanity has somehow evolved. In certain parts of the world… at least. Why the need to skin animals for leather? Seems barbarism, pre historic and out of date…

The only mass scaled alternative

The only mass scaled alternative with an identical look and feel. There are plenty of alternatives if you don't need it to look like leather. Like the infinite variety of fabrics.

I'm not convinced raising a whole living being that eats plants, and harvesting its skin is that much more energy efficient than just using a plant fibre

Other new materials can and will be scaled up, such as hemp based cloth, mycelium based leather etc.

Despite its reputation, leather is definitively not a byproduct. The modern leather industry does not reduce the waste of animal agriculture, it collaborates in it. Leather is best viewed as a coproduct, meaning that the two industries are distinct, but inextricably linked.

The global leather goods market is gigantic, and Grand View Research predicts it will reach USD $405.28 billion by 2030, up from $242.85 billion in 2022. In 2020, global production reached 12.5 million tonnes and included the skin of over 1.4 billion animals. (That’s nearly 20 percent of the entire human population at the time killed within a single year.)

Apart from the staggering inherent environmental footprint of raising cattle, turning hides into leather itself has a significant impact. So significant, in fact, that Collective Fashion Justice believes turning hides into products creates more CO2e emissions – about 110kg per square meter – than simply putting them straight into landfill. (Which is very likely where the product will end up rotting and producing emissions eventually, anyway.)

It’s also not just cows that are used to produce leather. Hides from sheeps*, lambs, goats, and pigs are also frequently used, while animals such as crocodiles, alligators, snakes, kangaroos, zebras, elephants, and more – including rare, endangered, and keystone species – are hunted specifically for their skins, frequently for luxury accessories by high-end brands.

Fashion designer and vegan icon Stella McCartney, who uses plant-based alternatives to leather in her various products, previously told Plant Based News (PBN) that the idea of leather was a byproduct was “sheer nonsense.” She added: “I’m here to let people know that’s a lie that’s been created by the meat industry and leather boards.”

https://plantbasednews.org/news/environment/the-problem-with-leather-cruel/

The single largest producer of micro plastics is car tires. The second largest is lint from synthetic clothing. I agree that it's probably green washing but it's still probably better than using leather.

Even if leather is a byproduct of meat production, it's not given away. It's sold. At best, leather is subsidizing the meat industry. Leather helps make animal suffering more profitable. Therefore it happens more.