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Poor quality Vegan Leather

11K views 49 replies 35 participants last post by  mark_9263 
#1 ·
Pretty please with Rivian as a whole. Decent company, vehicle and tech. Unfortunately the vegan leather and seat design is not very durable. The arm rest and seat both have very early wear at the stitching. 5 months of ownership and the fabric is already wearing out. Have a service request submitted. Let's see what they say.
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#3 ·
Mine doesn’t look nearly as bad as yours, thankfully, but I have also found it wears unacceptably in a short period of time. I do not think these interiors are going to hold up. Leather is superior for wear and some textiles would have been superior if vegan was the priority.
 
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#6 ·
I'm not disputing your experience, but "five months of ownership" is a meaningless statistic. Wear is going to relate directly to "usage"...not time (I have a 2006 Mercedes that I've owned since 2007...it barely has 50k miles on it). Please...when reporting this type of issue, provide the mileage you've driven in those 5 months.
 
#7 ·
Those are not even wear points; that's cheap pleather or defective batch. You won't be the only one, those come in large bolts, Had pleather on an older VW, wore like iron, actually longer than the car (hot as hell though), that just pealing away and separating in flakes. Maybe that vegan cow had psoriasis.
Tell us how it's handled, should get all new seats covered, that's covered for five years or 60K miles.
Best of luck,
 
#9 ·
I used to work in the automotive leather industry. This is not a normal wear pattern. And not in a normal distribution. I would guess they used some harsh cleaner or "protectant" on the seats and it soaked into the stitching and affected the finish on the vegan leather. Maybe they were dumb enough to clean it with acetone or something. I do not know if the production of vegan leather is similar to automotive leather, but if it is, the colors are just paint. If you do dumb stuff to it, it will fail. That being said, it could just be a bad batch. But it wouldn't be confined to just the seams then. The seams are cut out of a sheet with a die, so there is nothing inherently different about them, other than there is a piece of thread going through. I bet on user error.
 
#11 ·
The passenger side of the center console is a weird place to see wear, especially since you don't show similar damage on the driver's side. That leads me to think this might be caused by a lotion or something that your passenger uses that is interacting with the "leather"?

I agree it's concerning. That said, my R1T has 5k miles and my "leather" still looks brand new. (I also have an Ocean Coast interior).
 
#12 ·
Pretty please with Rivian as a whole. Decent company, vehicle and tech. Unfortunately the vegan leather and seat design is not very durable. The arm rest and seat both have very early wear at the stitching. 5 months of ownership and the fabric is already wearing out. Have a service request submitted. Let's see what they say. View attachment 10476
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Rivian buys their seats from Hyundai; I doubt Hyundai is doubt the fake leather is from them. The one picture below:

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it looks like someone went over the bottom seam line with some liquid leather or touched it up before it left the plant. No fake pigskin dotting on the material close to the stitch line. Each right end of the stitch is pulling the material down on a 45-degree angle going up. I would check a good upholstery shop in your area and ask them what they think, and they will know besides having Rivian replace the covers, I had to replace a bottom and top bolster on a 993 Porsche, but they use real leather, and their thin leather is softer. The only purchase hides them from warm climates, which are thinner and softer but wear out quicker, but even mine even lasted 65K miles and over 23 years, MB, BMW, and VW have had great fake leather for 30-50 years; it a shame you have to go through that.
 
#18 ·
This is after 9700 miles, VIN5852. I put 3k miles on, then my dad put the rest on while he's been waiting first for a never ending Model S repair, and now for a Model Y (long story). He's pretty hard on things, but his 2015 Model S never showed anything like this. I think it was a big mistake that Rivian went with the "Vegan" trend (just a euphemism for virgin plastic). Real leather is a byproduct of the meat industry, and is in surplus globally. Real leather is a fantastic natural material, and I've never seen any vinyl that feels as nice or wears as well.

We live in VT, several hours from a SC (nearest is Boston). So far we've been very disappointed with Rivian support on a few issues, and this one apparently requires a trip to Boston... We will see how we're treated once we get down there. I'll be back to driving this truck full time next week, and these sorts of things bother me more than my dad (and I have more patience navigating service generally), so I may schedule a warranty claim when I get a chance.

Does anyone know if this is specifically a Forest Edge and/or early VIN issue?

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#21 ·
I understand your point but it has to be engineered arround. At truck that is labeled "adventure vehicle" should be built to be durable and withstand use situations with commonly worn clothing. I have about 6000 wonderful miles on the truck. After 75k on a Hyundai and Tesla also with vegan leather there is no ware visible. Same clothing and quantity of egress/ingress per day.
 
#23 ·
This wear on Forest Edge vegan leather is very concerning. We've had pleather on several cars and it wears essentially the same as leather on other cars. My pre-order (Sept 2019) is forest edge and if there's a bad lot of this material, will Rivian cover replacement? What is the warranty?
Unlike Tesla which repaired a lot of early cars with "goodwill," Rivian seems to be charging people for things that should be covered.
 
#24 ·
That's just poor manufacturing and quality control; nobody is that hard on a vehicle's seats in an $80K-100K plus new truck under a year old. I can't believe the posters who blame the owner. Those pleather flakes look like it is millimeters thick. Vegan leather, my a$$., and Rivian has not commented back to you yet? One guy got it replaced on the forum, it happened again so he said the heck with Rivian he went and had real leather installed. That is a good way to get it right, a small fortune, but heck, if I am taking that on. Sorry for the problem; I would raise hell all over.
 
#26 · (Edited)
There is no such thing as vegan ‘leather’ (Wikipedia) Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay.

Vegan leather is made from two plastic-based materials: polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyurethane (PU), so it is derived from Fossil Fuels………

(have to pick your poison apparently). But whatever the material is made of, the information should be provided to owners for maintenance, care and cleaning purposes. ‘Vegan Leather’ is marketing hype meant to emotionally engender a certain populous into identifying positively with a product.

The excess damage noted in a lot of the photos looks very similar to what happens with bonded leather products.
 
#27 ·
There is no such thing as vegan ‘leather’ (Wikipedia) Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay.

Vegan leather is made from two plastic-based materials: polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyurethane (PU), so it is derived from Fossil Fuels………

(have to pick your poison apparently). But whatever the material is made of, the information should be provided to owners for maintenance, care and cleaning purposes. ‘Vegan Leather’ is marketing hype meant to emotionally engender a certain populous into identifying positively with a product.

The excess damage noted in a lot of the photos looks very similar to what happens with bonded leather products.
I guess "Vegan leather" came into use after the "Nauga" became extinct.
For the younger readers, in the past it was called "naugahide".:ROFLMAO::LOL:
 
#31 ·
Pretty please with Rivian as a whole. Decent company, vehicle and tech. Unfortunately the vegan leather and seat design is not very durable. The arm rest and seat both have very early wear at the stitching. 5 months of ownership and the fabric is already wearing out. Have a service request submitted. Let's see what they say. View attachment 10476 View attachment 10478 View attachment 10475 View attachment 10476 View attachment 10477 View attachment 10478 View attachment 10475 View attachment 10476 View attachment 10477 View attachment 10475
 
#32 ·
I’m having the same issues. Tearing of the vegan leather along the seams. Also 5k miles, ocean coast. I have an appointed for it to be addressed in July. Drivers seat and passenger center console. This better be fixed under warranty.

So much to love about the vehicle but this is not good. I have the seams protected right now with scotch tape to stop from ripping further :(
 
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