Mercedes is offering textile upholstery combined with ARTICO artificial leather for the first time on the Mercedes S-Class W223 facelift.
In recent years, a trend has emerged in the automotive industry toward the use of eco-friendly materials. As a result, more and more premium manufacturers have begun offering alternatives to natural leather upholstery. The first example was the BMW 7 Series, which offers a very elegant cashmere upholstery that is even more expensive than leather.
Mercedes has also decided to follow this trend and is, for the first time, offering the new Mercedes GLC Electric with an interior certified as 100% vegan by an independent organization. This organization tested all soft materials in the optional Vegan package—from seat upholstery to the headliner, door panels, and floor mats. After testing, The Vegan Society, founded on November 1, 1944, confirmed that no animal-derived products are present in the textiles or in the ARTICO artificial leather upholstery.
Mercedes is also offering an option without animal-derived leather upholstery on the S-Class W223 facelift. This marks the first time in the decades-long history of this luxury model that a version without animal leather upholstery is available.
Textile upholstery with artificial leather
If you enter the Mercedes configurator, under upholstery options you will find: “leather,” “nappa leather,” “exclusive leather,” and “ARTICO leatherette.” However, “ARTICO leatherette” is not just artificial leather upholstery—there is actually very little artificial leather involved.
In fact, it is a combination of a textile material called “Mirville” in Stormy Grey, which covers the central areas of the seats, and black ARTICO artificial leather with white stitching on the seat bolsters.
There is no natural leather anywhere in the interior in this version, with synthetic leather replacing natural leather on the door panels, steering wheel, and interior pillars.
The leather-free interior is available with all engine variants, including the S 580 4MATIC and S 580 e 4MATIC. All luxury options—such as multiple electric adjustments or the six massage programs combined with multicontour seats—can also be ordered with this upholstery.
The Mercedes S-Class W223 facelift is the first S-Class in history without a single square centimeter of natural leather, because even older models from the W126 series that had velour upholstery still featured a steering wheel wrapped in natural leather.
Leather upholstery is still available, with black being standard. The beech brown/black and macchiato beige/magma grey leather upholsteries cost an extra €416.50, while the finer Nappa leather costs €2,261 (black) or €2,677.50 (beech brown/black and macchiato beige/magma grey). There is also a more expensive Exclusive Nappa leather upholstery, available in combination with certain packages.
