Why EV producers must choose leather
President of the Leather and Hide Council of America (LHCA), Stephen Sothmann, has provided a though-provoking comment article to influential car industry publication Automotive News.
Commenting on the current push towards making electric vehicles (EVs), Mr Sothmann pointed out that there was an irony in automotive brands celebrating the ability of these products to help consumers lower their use of fossil fuels while, frequently, using fossil-fuel derived synthetic fibres in the cars’ interiors.
“For an EV industry built for the purpose of reducing our carbon footprint,” the LHCA president said, “supporting the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries [in their material choices for vehicle interiors] is problematic, counter-productive and, potentially, toxic to its branding.”
He warned that if consumers choose plastic interiors for their cars, there is a real danger that hides, which could be used to make automotive leather, will go to landfill. He said this would represent “the worse possible environmental outcome in terms of vehicle interiors and CO2”.
This does not need to occur, he insisted, because a natural solution exists in the form of leather.
Image: Ford Mustang Mach-E GT
