BMW cars to have vegan interiors from 2023

Car manufacturers are pushing towards sustainability and being more environmentally friendly in a big way. One way they’ve been going about this is by developing electric powertrains. The BMW Group is likewise doing that, but the German marque is going above and beyond electrification and is instead vowing to equip its future models with vegan interiors. 

Upcoming BMW and Mini models will come with vegan interiors

Do remember that BMW does offer alternatives to natural leather for quite some time now. This latest announcement however, pertains to completely eliminating the use of natural leather. These will be done for all BMW models as well as Mini models by 2023. 

As for the new, vegan leather interior materials, the brand claims that these will be premium in appearance, and they also be wear resistant. That said, it will be as good-looking and as durable as natural (animal) leather.  

Why forgo the use of natural leather? Well BMW says that this will actually reduce emissions by 85 percent. This is especially true for the production of steering wheels. Cattle, after all, produce a lot of methane gas. Growing cattle is also water-intensive and energy-intensive. 

Speaking of steering wheels, vegan surface materials will also be used on steering wheel wrappings instead. The brand did promise that these will have the same feel as animal leather.  

BMW added that animal-based products will still be used in their cars, albeit at a much lower percentage. One percent of these raw materials will be limited to gelatin in protective coatings, beeswax and lanolin as components for paints, among others. 

Switching to vegan interiors will help reduce carbon emissions

The brand will also avoid making floor mats out of multi-material mixes. Instead, the German marque will turn to a mono-material mix, which according to them is easier to recycle. This in turn will help reduce a whopping 1,600 tonnes of waste per year. 

This vegan interior initiative by BMW lines up with their intention to further reduce the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions over a vehicle’s life cycle. It also coincides with the brand’s larger scope goal of achieving climate neutrality in general by 2050. Together with electrification, the move to vegan materials for car interiors is the brand’s direction to achieve this lofty goal. 

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