Luxury Mercedes ‘leather’ made from old tyres is great news for the planet, and cows

Mercedes has developed a way to upcycle used GT3 race car tyres and turn them into a luxurious leather alternative, taking the idea of motorsport DNA running through its road cars to another level.

The cowhide replacement, which has been given the catchy name ‘Labfiber Biotech Leather Alternative’, was developed by Mercedes and American start-up, Modern Meadow. It was one of many innovations featured in the AMG GT XX concept, but the two companies are working together to put it into production cars soon. 

The process starts by recycling the spent tyres, breaking them down into granules, then combining those with biomethane from agricultural waste to create pyrolysis oil. This is then turned into plastic microfibres used to create the new textile.

It’s not until this textile gets treated with vegetable proteins and bio-based polymers that it starts to resemble leather. And unlike artificial leather, Mercedes says its alternative properly mimics the structure of genuine cowhide, and can go through the same tanning processes to create something that looks and feels remarkably close to the real thing. 

We can attest to that, as we got to examine samples of Labfiber ourselves during the reveal of the AMG GT XX. The material used in the concept was made from tyres fresh off AMG GT3 customer racing cars. One scrap tyre provides the basis for around four square metres of Labfiber.

The company also says Labfiber can be produced with different surface finishes to resemble nubuck leather, full-grain leather or suede. It can also be created in a variety of colours and textures. Plus, it’s twice as strong as genuine leather, is waterproof and, because of low thermal conductivity, doesn’t get too hot in the summer. 

As you probably guessed, turning a tyre into leather is not the quickest process, with the most time-consuming element being chemical processing to create the raw textile. However, Mercedes’ material experts tell us that it actually takes about as long as the tanning process for genuine leather. 

Exactly when Mercedes will start offering customers Labfiber as an alternative to traditional leather for their cars is still unclear. Perhaps it’ll be ready to feature in the production version of the AMG GT XX, which will be revealed next year, with the goal of toppling the Porsche Taycan.

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