What is Alcantara?
Alcantara is the brand name of a common synthetic textile material.
It has a soft, suede-like microfiber pile and is noted for its durability.
In strictly technical terms, Alcantara® is a micro fibrous material,
a non-woven fabric. It's extremely fine fibres are arranged
to reproduce the microscopic structure of natural leather.
0.8mm is the most used quality of Alcantara fabric.
A lot of cars have interiors trimmed in a suede-like upholstery called Alcantara.
But what exactly is it and should your next car have it? Here’s our advice guide explains.
Despite appearances, it isn’t suede.
Alcantara is actually a synthetic textile that was developed in the 1970s
by a Japanese chemist and manufactured by an Italian company called… Alcantara.
It soon became the upholstery of choice for the interiors of racing cars.
Road car manufacturers quickly realised that adding a bit of Alcantara
to the interiors of their sporty models imparted a measure
of motorsport credibility, helping sales.
What are the benefits of Alcantara?
Many of the reasons Alcantara is used in race car interiors
apply just as much to road cars. On the seat and steering wheel,
it provides more grip than leather. It doesn’t get hot like leather,
either, or soggy like cloth will after several hours of having a sweaty driver sat on it.
Covering a dashboard, it doesn’t cast reflections in the windscreen.
And some grades are flame retardant.
It’s much more hard-wearing than suede, it’s easy to clean and just feels nice to the touch.