Tesla shareholders are pleading with CEO Elon Musk to make a 100 per cent leather-free car

By James Cook

Tesla CEO Elon Musk received an unusual request at the electric car company's annual general meeting on Tuesday.

Shareholders Mark and Elizabeth Peters, from Texas, asked Musk to produce a version of the Tesla roadster that is made without leather, Bloomberg reports. They even pleaded with the company to drop leather altogether by 2019.

Here's what Peters said at the AGM, via Seeking Alpha:

Tesla has two choices. Tesla can continue to fill cars with the skins of sentient beings that suffer unspeakable horror while adding massive amounts of greenhouse gas into the air. According to the UN and other sources, this is the fundamental truth of using animal skins or Tesla can adopt one of the many faux leather materials used by Mercedes Benz, Lexus, BMW, Infiniti and others that are cruelty free, have wonderful reviews, last the long time, come in multiple colors and have, and involve far less greenhouse gases.

The Tesla Model S is available now without leather seats, but the trim is still leather, Fortune reports.

A representative from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals contacted Musk to offer its help in finding alternatives to leather, Bloomberg said. Musk reportedly told the organisation that "we'll look into it."

Another shareholder at the AGM brought along multiple copies of a DVD called "Conspiracy," which he hoped would educate the company's board about the threat of climate change. Seeking Alpha reports that the shareholder directed Musk to a website, conspiracy.com/facts, which currently redirects to a YouTube video about British political party UKIP.