Cost-cutting isn’t sexy. Journalists don’t tend to receive press releases proclaiming ‘we’ve made the new version of our car intentionally worse so we can save some money while also charging more for it’.
But sustainability sells. At least car makers think so. Don’t say: ‘We’ve replaced leather with vinyl, because it can be made more cheaply.’
Do say: ‘The new such-and-such features vegan Sensitastic© upholstery made from recycled bottles, because won’t somebody think of the cows?’ Never mind that leather is often a by-product from meat production rather than a goal in itself.
I actually thought the move away from leather seats would be a good thing and spark designers’ creativity, because to be honest I find leather overrated: cold in winter, warm in summer and not very grippy, it’s surely inferior to cloth. Instead we got a vinyl revival.
But there are some glimmers of hope: a couple of intrepid material design teams willing to try something different. One of the most prominent proponents is Volvo, which has been offering a wool-blend option on some of its cars for a number of years now and doesn’t charge more for it than for leather.
It was fitted in an XC40 I borrowed a while back, and I thought it was wonderful. Volvo’s seats tend to be among the most comfortable anyway, and in combination with a natural fabric that breathes and holds you in, it’s a soothing place to be.
In this case, it’s also not dyed black, which is such a nice break from the dingy interiors of most new cars.
You wouldn’t paint the walls of your lounge black (unless you’re a goth), so why have a black car interior? The marled white and grey of the wool is so much more interesting than the flat surface of leather.
Some of the Volkswagen Group brands seem to have the right idea as well, being in the midst of a minor velour revival. You get a dark grey soft fabric as standard in Skoda’s Superb and Kodiaq, with leather featuring on the more expensive trim levels, and Cupra’s Born offers something similar, even if you have to go for the top V3 trim.
I wonder if the cloth-versus-leather question is a cyclical, generational thing.
After all, on the earliest cars, the servant driver sat outside on weatherproof leather while the owner luxuriated inside the cab on a fabric bench.