Automakers Getting a Taste for Vegan Values

Is your car vegan?

Actor Michael Bell's is. The 66-year-old Encino resident doesn't eat or wear animal products, and his hybrid car doesn't have a stitch of leather in it.

If it had, Bell said, he wouldn't have bought the car, a 2001 Toyota Prius, despite its impeccable green credentials.

In raw numbers, vegans such as Bell are so few that they barely register on surveys of consumer habits. But to automobile manufacturers trying to win favor among the increasing number of consumers who say they are environmentally conscious, vegans -- who avoid all animal products -- are what one marketing expert called the center of the bull's-eye.

Pleasing vegans, the theory goes, is key to reaching a wider group of consumers -- affluent shoppers who worry about the environment and who are willing to pay extra for food, clothing and even automobiles, if they are made in ways that do less harm to the planet.

Toyota Motor Corp. is so attuned to the sensibilities of these so-called green consumers that the company doesn't even offer leather seats for the popular Prius.

Ford Motor Co., under fire from environmental activists for its gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles, ran an eight-page advertisement in the New Yorker magazine touting the company's green credentials. The ad led off with the boast that 11 members of the design team for the company's soon-to-be-released hybrid Escape SUV are vegetarians, and its leader is a vegan.

Even Mercedes-Benz, which does not make a hybrid, will offer a "non-leather" package starting with the 2005 model year, in response to customer requests. Previously, all of the luxury automaker's high-end cars came standard with leather seats.

"As a marketer you want to identify with the passionate group," said Bob Kurilko, vice president of marketing for the automobile website Edmunds.com.

"The middle of the bull's-eye is where you want to focus your marketing, and then you want to expand your message around that. If you draw these concentric circles, the middle of the bull's-eye right now is the vegan."

Marr Nealon, a nutritional consultant based in Eagle Rock, is just such a consumer. She doesn't wear silk out of concern for silkworms. She won't eat honey, saying, "It's something the bees make for their own consumption. Why should we take their food?"

Nealon's 2001 Volkswagen Golf has no leather in it. She said she would gladly pay extra to ensure that her car was leather-free and environmentally friendly. Next year, she plans to buy a Toyota Prius, despite its higher cost.