Although the trend has already started with the Volvo C40 Recharge, the Swedish firm has decided to extend it to all its future electric cars: it will stop using animal skins in the interiors of its 100% electric cars.
Volvo Cars wants 25% of the materials used in its new vehicles to be recycled and bio-based by 2025.
Plastic bottles, recycled cork...
Instead of leather options for vehicle interiors, Volvo will offer sustainable, bio-sourced and recycled materials such as 'Nordic'.
It is a fabric made from recycled materials, such as PET plastic bottles, bio-attributed materials from sustainable forests in Sweden and Finland, and recycled cork from the wine industry, which will make its debut in the next generation of Volvo models.
The brand will also offer wool-blend fabrics from approved suppliers who source their materials responsibly, as it wants to "ensure traceability and animal welfare throughout the wool supply chain."
The company's decision to stop using leather inside its vehicles is also motivated by its concern about the negative impact of cattle farming on the environment, due, among other causes, to deforestation.
According to data from Volvo, livestock are responsible for approximately 14% of the greenhouse gas emissions produced in the world, and most of this percentage comes from cattle farming.
It also wants to reduce the use of residual livestock products that are used to produce plastics, rubber, lubricants and adhesives, either as components of the material itself or as a chemical involved in its manufacture or treatment.
Even the mechanical elements and in the manufacture of the car, animal fat is used.
The truth is that this vegan movement in the automotive sphere has been forging for a long time: it started with Tesla back in 2016 and has been spreading over the years.
Polestar with the Precept, Jaguar Land Rover with its Range Rover SUVs, Koenigsegg with the Gemera, Fisker with the Ocean, Volkswagen with the ID.4... more and more brands are betting on saying goodbye to the animal.
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