Tesla announces Model 3 interior is now 100% leather-free

Tesla announced today that it made changes to the Model 3 interior and that it is now officially “100% leather-free”, according to the automaker.

A while back, Tesla shifted all of their seat options to “Tesla Synthetic Material” which is not animal-sourced, and therefore vegan.

However, it didn’t make the Model 3 completely vegan due to the steering wheel still being made with leather.

Model S and Model X buyers have been able to special order the vehicles with a non-leather steering wheel, but it hasn’t been an option for Model 3, which has a different steering wheel than Model S and X.

At Tesla’s shareholder’s meeting earlier this year, a PETA representative asked CEO Elon Musk to make the option available and also fulfill a previous promise to make the upcoming Model Y vegan.

The CEO confirmed that they were working to get it done by next year:

PETA: “Can you confirm the Model Y will be vegan as promised?”

Musk: “Yes it will.”

PETA: “…and that all of Tesla’s products will be free of animal products by next years shareholder meeting?”

Musk: “Uh I’m not, there might be the tiniest bit left, I’m not sure, but Model Y, Model 3, I think I’m confident about that. We have a lot of things to solve but I think for sure the Model Y and the Model 3 soon and you can also special order for the S and X.”

Today, Tesla announced that it has made the changes to the Model 3 interior to make it leather-free:

Model 3 interior is now 100% leather-free 🐄 pic.twitter.com/2F47zp8A4T

— Tesla (@Tesla) August 31, 2019

The automaker didn’t confirm that the vehicle was completely vegan, but it now doesn’t have any leather product in the interior.

Tesla first started introducing its synthetic leather option in vehicles back in 2016 starting with an “ultra white” option and it quickly became a popular option with Tesla owners.

Over the years, it became a standard interior configuration after being road-tested for years and showing good reliability.