No it's not. All Model 3's produced have the same exact seats (besides the minor revisions).

You may be thinking of the originally proposed SR/SR+ half leather and half linen or whatever they were talking about. They scrapped that.

False, you cannot buy a Model 3, or any Tesla for that matter that doesn't have leather. There was a planed cloth seat for the model 3 but they scrapped that.

Is it real animal skin? As someone who opts out of leather interiors in cars, and knowing that Tesla sells well to the SV crowd, I'm surprised that there'd be no way to buy a tesla without killing some cattle.

3 and Y are vegan leather. The others had a cloth option, but for the new ones the leather will be vegan.

"vegan leather"

So, plastic.

Yes, polyurethane, which according to testing, performs better than real leather in the rubbing/scratching tests. Durability in general is superior on actual 'premium' leatherette/vegan leather offerings.

Sure, you can make crap leatherette material that is way too hot and sticky and feels like cheap vinyl, but that's not what this is.

Hopefully more like "I can't believe it's not leather".