7 ms·
Hands-On with Vescin: MINI's New Vegan Friendly Interior That Replaces Leather
- Freak_NL 2y agoSearching for 'vescin' all I seem to get is marketing results from BMW and Mini. So what exactly is it beyond 'a proprietary vegan material'? What is it made of?
- fredoralive 2y agoProbably just vinyl or some other plastic. Don't worry, it's 100% recyclable, honest.
- fph 2y agoThey do claim in TFA that the new material "happens to be much more environmentally friendly to make and is 100 (sic) recyclable to boot". I hope that's not just marketing.
- rsynnott 2y ago> happens to be much more environmentally friendly to make This would not be difficult; leather production is an extremely dirty process.
- aziaziazi 2y agoPerhaps I misunderstood your message but as I read it thats true for the real/animal based leather. What they call "vegan leather" here is a synthetic material that try to mimic the desired properties of real leather. They claim it being more environmental friendly. edit : I did missread your message by missing "This would not be difficult" :)
- rsynnott 2y agoYup, that's what I meant; I'd definitely believe their claim here.
- carom 2y agoMy assumption would be that it is some form of plastic.
- Klonoar 2y agoIt might just be their term (like how BMW and Toyota have house names for their synthetic leathers). It might be based on MIRUM, since I recall BMW (who own Mini) working with them awhile back. MIRUM is one of the few plant based leather “replacements” that uses no plastic - although I obviously don’t know if the material used in Minis is this and is 100% plastic free, just throwing some possible leads out. I had a leather worker make me a wallet out of a batch of MIRUM I got a few years ago and they were surprised at how close it gets to working with leather. It’s certainly not perfect - or at least wasn’t back then - but it was apparently far more usable than the plastic backed alternatives. Still holds up today and aged decently well. If BMW/Mini are indeed using it finally, IMO it’s a win over their earlier alternative leathers.
- userbinator 2y agoBehold the power of marketing. "Vegan leather" is just... plastic. On the other hand, I don't think I've seen cloth seats advertised by any car manufacturer as "plant-based" or similar, yet.
- robertlagrant 2y agoIt was once termed "pleather" by unkind folk.
- Klaster_1 2y agoSecond this, I expected a mycelium-based alternative instead of plastic.
- stevage 2y agoI'm trying to work out whether Mini actually uses the word "vegan" or this is just the journalism. Mini says this for instance: > Only leather-free trim options are available for the upholstery and seats of the MINI Cooper (2024). Depending on the trim, you can choose from different fabric and vescin variants or fabric/vescin combinations. Although elsewhere they say: > The MINI Favoured Trim in the MINI Aceman (2024) is the most expressive variant of the MINI Aceman in the interior and exterior. Parts of the dashboard are covered with a two-tone knitted textile in Petrol with an orange pattern. The sport seats made of perforated vegan leather (Vescin) are available in a light and a dark colour with coloured accent stitching. The frame of the front grille is finished in Vibrant Silver. The front and rear have a visual underride protection in Vibrant Silver.
- 2y ago
- vr46 2y agoI have experienced too much degradation of both leather and plastic material over the last twenty to thirty years to know what's what, leather needs feeding and oiling to retain its properties, and plastic deteriorates in numerous ways from stickiness to brittleness. Leather that outlasts the car seems stupid, my friend and I have a complete set of Saab 9000 Aero seats that we salvaged from my car about 15 years ago, still waiting for either of us to turn them into useful seating for the home.
- donatj 2y agoI've had trouble with cheap bonded leather, but never with real full leather.
- vr46 2y agoYou’ve not foolishly neglected a Billingham bag’s straps over 33 years, like I did. They need replacing now because they became so dry and brittle.
- userbinator 2y agoUV is the biggest enemy of both. Also be aware that ozone generators, which some people like to use periodically to deodourise their car, will also accelerate the degradation.
- zokier 2y agoThe problem with plastics is that they encompass such huge range of materials that you can't really make any reasonable generalizations for them. The most you can say is that they are mostly hydrocarbon based, which is almost completely unhelpful.
- vr46 2y agoIndeed. My 1999 Crumpler is sticky, as are similar things from that era, but the clear windows on my ski jacket’s helmet cracked into pieces. My old 1980’s Walkman case did both on the same case with both materials as you suggested.
- lionkor 2y agoId be happy with just "leather from particularly joyful animals" or whatever
- teekert 2y agoPerhaps, but it's also the chemicals you want to avoid, formaldehyde for one, that are used to get the leather in a useful state. It's not just about animal well-being.
- gattilorenz 2y agoThat seems very cruel. If anything I'd want to have leather from animals that voluntarily decided to commit suicide despite having access to all amenities.
- lionkor 2y agosuicide leather just doesn't sound like it would sell :/ I was thinking happy animals that died of old age
- donatj 2y agoPractically speaking, I'd be more upset if we continued to kill animals and just threw their skin out rather than using it. If you're going to kill something, you really should to the best of your ability use every part of that animal. That's both reasonable and moral. As far as I am aware, the leather industry doesn't really drive the farming of animals but instead exists purely as a secondary byproduct processing market.
- Arn_Thor 2y agoNot “purely” as a byproduct. They are complementary industries. Without the leather trade, meat producers would have to pay to properly dispose of that byproduct. I agree that would be wasteful, and I love quality leather products myself. But I recognize that the leather, meat and dairy lobbies all work towards the same goal of ever expanding the industry. So I am always on the lookout for great vegan leather. If the demand market dries up, this will raise the cost of meat and dairy, which will give alternatives to those a better chance to thrive.
- donatj 2y agoI think you are mistaken. If meat industry disappeared, I don't believe the leather industry would exist on any sort of comparable scale. People would not be raising cows and devoting fields to feed and the whole chain of events that goes into slaughting and animal for it's skin. Leather would be profoundly expensive. The meat industry on the other hand would be largely unaffected if the leather industry disappeared. They just need to find something else to do with the skin, and they would over night.
- potato3732842 2y ago> They just need to find something else to do with the skin, and they would over night. Not even. The skin would go into the same grinders as all of the "useless" parts of the animal and become whatever downstream products it becomes (dog food, protein additives for animal feed, etc)
- stevage 2y agoFraming it as "vegan" feels misleading and confusing. Just call it "synthetic". There are leather hiking boots and synthetic hiking boots. Leave the bloody vegans out of this.
- teekert 2y agoBut, vegans are people that don't consume any animal or animal derived materials. They don't use leather shoes, for example. I thought it was a good description actually?
- mathieuh 2y agoThe problem is vegan is now a Bad Word. I no longer say I am vegan, I say "I don't consume animal products", which seems to get a better reception than "vegan". I wonder if using the word "vegan" will harm them in the long run from people who take pride in avoiding "woke" vegan things. A cursory glance at the right-wing tabloids in the UK will I think demonstrate that this is a real concern.
- teekert 2y agoI think you're just better of ignoring people that consider vegan a bad word, they're just a small group. We should not change word meanings for them. A word defines a thing or a concept. If it, by itself, elicits some emotional response, you loose some of my respect. I hope rationality wins in this regard. But it seems to be a growing battle.
- uxcolumbo 2y agoYep, Murdoch and friends have successfully managed to turn something positive into negative. Vegan just means trying to avoid / reduce harm to animals / environment where practically possible. It's pragmatic not dogmatic.
- Maken 2y agoPeople who consider "vegan" a bad word are neither going to seek a replacement for leather either nor buy an electric car, so I don't think it will harm their sales in any meaningful way. I find more problematic they call "leather" to something that is not leather at all.
- linksnapzz 2y agoThe gold standard for not-leather on automotive interiors is, as far as I can tell, Mercedes MBtex. The current version is good, but the stuff they used pre 1995 or so was so convincing that dentists and accountants would swear to you that the 100% vinyl interior of their S-class was infact all cowhide. Leather needs to be taken care of; which conflicts with American expectations of how much maintenance one should have to do to a car (preferably, not even oil changes). This is why full-leather, full-grain interiors that cost four figures on the option list gave way to full-(top-grain)leather, then bonded-leather "seating surfaces", where the thin hide in question would be least likely to crease or split. Rolls, Bentley, Mercedes-Maybach...still do the full-leather thing, mostly from cows they source from Scandinavia, where barbed-wire && tabanid horseflies are less common so the hides have fewer scars when they get to the tannery. It is assumed that yr. servants have a bottle of Zymol to keep the inside of your Phantom VII or Mulsanne in good shape.