The Road Less Cruel: Vegan Cars for Every Driver

From peta.org

Vegan cars are cool, but they aren’t a fad or trend. Animal-free interiors are setting the standard in the industry. There are more choices than ever – including a robust selection of hybrid and fully electric vehicles. In 2024, PETA conducted a thorough review of car brands and created a comprehensive list of vegan cars.

This month, Mercedes announced a new vegan interior option for its GLC SUV. With stereotypical German thoroughness, the company says it audited all its materials to remove anything derived from animals’ bodies.

This announcement is more proof that vegan interiors are here to stay, helping to spare animals and the world we share.

Cruelty on Wheels

While base model cars are often upholstered with high-quality vegan fabrics, a few brands still use leather or wool in their cars’ upholstery.

Leather is the processed skin of dead cows and bulls—sensitive, caring animals who nurture and comfort one another, yet who are forced by ranchers and slaughterhouse workers to endure pain and terror throughout their lives. Wool is stolen from abused sheep who are left bruised and bleeding before they’re eventually sent to slaughter.

So it’s important that car manufacturers like Mercedes remove cruelty from their interiors by using vegan upgrades like a high-tech vegan leather that blends recycled tires, plant-based proteins, and biopolymers to create a breathable, waterproof material. Today, more than half of the car brands in the United States offer vegan models, with new innovations being announced regularly.

Vegan Cars Are More Sustainable

The leather industry kills over a billion animals every year and uses massive amounts of chemicals—approximately 130 different types, including cyanide. The leather industry also squanders valuable natural resources, including up to 15,000 gallons of water per ton of skin, and emits massive amounts of carbon. And, of course, leather industry workers use scalding hot irons to brand cows’ and bulls’ bodies, cut parts of their tails off, cut their testicles out, and burn away their horns —all often without any painkillers.

Similarly, the wool industry abuses millions of gentle sheep, individuals who feel pain, fear, and loneliness but are valued only for their fleece and skins. They are mutilated when young, including castration, the removal of strips of skin, and the cutting of tails—all without painkillers. Shearing—the process of stealing sheep’s wool—often involves shearers kicking and beating the sheep and then leaving them bleeding and bruised. When the industry is done with them, sheep are sent off to the slaughterhouse for a last moment of sheer terror.

                                                                                                                                       Mercedes-Benz

Vegan interiors come standard in many Jeeps, Mercedes, and MINIs, and other car brands. Carmakers often introduce vegan interiors first in their electric cars. This includes some of the largest companies, such as Ford and Chevrolet, as well as more niche brands like Polestar Tesla’s cars have all been vegan since 2019, thanks in part to PETA’s activism.

Similarly, this year, PETA France persuaded Renault to feature low-carbon, cruelty-free alternatives to leather.

Some brands, like Volvo, say they are moving towards all-vegan interiors in all their cars. The interiors of Volvo’s electric cars are vegan, and the company says that, by 2030, all its vehicles will be both electric and vegan.

It’s clear that the traffic jams of the future will be vegan! Actually, it’s already all around us: every time you hit the road, you are surrounded by vegan vehicles. Maybe your own car is free from unnecessary cruelty—thank you for being part of the solution.

https://www.peta.org/living/humane-home/vegan-cars/