Skip leather, PETA urges Tesla
But car maker’s board says it would cause too much of a delay
Even as it presses for more environmental responsibility, electric-car maker Tesla Motors is now under pressure from People for Ethical Treatment of Animals to drop leather seats.
A proposal from a shareholder asked the company to eliminate “animal-sourced materials” in its luxury electric cars by 2019. And a PETA representative urged fellow shareholders to make sure Teslas go “vegan” on interiors.
In its proxy statement, Tesla’s board of directors asks shareholders to reject the two proposals related to “cruelty-free materials.” The board says “exploring alternatives would impede or delay us” in a company that is growing at a rate of about 50% a year. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said after listening to PETA representative Stephanie Downs that he’d consider the issue.
Tesla offers cloth seats as standard equipment and leather interiors as an option.
On its face, Tesla would seem like an unusual choice to be singled out on the animal rights issue given the company’s stated devotion to issues of sustainability. But PETA has periodically gone after automakers before on the same issue, especially luxury automakers that hadn’t been offering cloth (instead of leather) interiors.
Earlier this year, for example, PETA lauded Mercedes-Benz Smart Car division for a 100% leather-free version of the tiny car. Smart has said it had offered leather-free cars before, but PETA said they had included leather steering-wheel wraps. PETA says it has had successes with BMW and Lexus as well.
PETA says going entirely leather-free would give the company the chance to reduce its carbon footprint even more. Anne Kellogg, PETA’s senior corporate liason, says Tesla is not being singled out.
“We ask companies in a host of industries to reduce their carbon footprint by using only vegan leather,” Kellogg says. “We encourage all companies, including automakers, to use only innovative high-tech interiors.”
She says she hopes PETA can work with Tesla behind the scenes on its proposal. She says PETA owns shares of Tesla.
The move to ask shareholders to offer only faux-leather interiors came from a Hurst, Texas, pair, Mark Peters and Elizabeth Farrell Peters, who presented their separate proposals and neither of whom mentioned an association with PETA. Mark Peters, who has 1,540 shares, praised his Model S and reminded fellow shareholders of Musk’s warnings about climate change.