Tesla Offers New Option

[RUCRAYZE]

From Tesla, a New Car Smell That Vegans Can Get Behind


Wheels

By DIANE CARDWELL JAN. 14, 2016

Photo

Leilani Münter, a professional racecar driver, environmental advocate and vegan, with her vegan Tesla in Huntersville, N.C. CreditTravis Dove for The New York Times

Continue reading the main storyShare This Page

• Tesla’s luxury electric vehicles, with their neck-snapping acceleration, are proof that performance doesn’t have to be sacrificed at the altar of saving the environment.
  
  But for some discerning consumers, there is a nagging problem. The leather in the seats and steering wheel requires slaughtering animals, and the cloth substitute doesn’t quite measure up for a vehicle that can cost more than $100,000.
  
  Now, in response, comes the Tesla that even a luxury-minded vegan could love.
  
  Synthetic leather, in a shade Tesla calls Ultra White, is available as an option for the new Model X sport utility vehicle.
  
  Tesla is just the latest automaker to join in what even Euell Gibbons, the naturalist of Grape-Nuts fame, would have had a hard time imagining a generation ago: a rush by the car industry — long a symbol of environmental wreckage — to project a more responsible image.