What do cars and clean air have in common? Nothing much. Unless that car is an electric vehicle like the Tesla Model 3 you see in the photo above. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a typical passenger car emits about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year--with the assumption of the average gas car on the road having a fuel economy of 22.0 miles per gallon and driving around 11,500 miles annually. This isn't always the case. In fact, this is being extremely optimistic.
The carbon dioxide emissions are even higher for diesel. For a gallon of diesel assuming the same scenario as above, 10,180 grams of carbon dioxide per gallon are emitted into the air. In addition to this, the average passenger car emits at least 404 grams of carbon dioxide per mile.
Unfortunately, there's even more bad news. The EPA says that in addition to carbon dioxide, cars produce methane and nitrous oxide from the tailpipe. And also, hydrofluorocarbon emissions from leaking air conditioners. The EPA downplayed these emissions claiming that they are small in comparison with the carbon dioxide, however Tesla vehicles don't emit any of these emissions.
In Tesla's 2021 Impact Report Tesla shared that it is designing its battery packs to outlast the car it self.
"We estimate that a vehicle gets scrapped after approximately 200,000 miles of usage in the U.S. and roughly 150,000 miles in Europe. Creating a battery that could last for 1,000,000 miles (4,000 charging cycles) would dramatically reduce the emissions per mile driven for high-mileage vehicles such as taxis, delivery vans or trucks.”
In other words, the focus on clean air is literally designed into the battery. Remember, the EPA only gave estimates for how the average American drives their car. Taxis, delivery vans, and trucks are not the averages.
“All vehicles in the world combined travel trillions of miles every year. A relatively small number of vehicles, such as taxis, delivery vans, trucks and buses account for a disproportionate amount of vehicle miles and, as a result, a disproportionate amount of emissions."
"A single future Tesla vehicle with a million-mile battery could be utilized over five-times more than an average vehicle in the U.S. After being fully optimized, and even once it is scrapped, a battery can still be recycled and its materials used in a brand-new battery.”
Fossil fuel that has been burned is really difficult to decarbonize since carbon capture isn't economically viable today. As in, there's no money to be made by capturing carbon. When you own a gas or diesel car, over the course of that car's life time you will burn at least 30,000 liters which equals to 8,000 gallons of fuel burned. And you'll release at least 70 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent into the atmosphere.
For Tesla owners, they use at least 70 megawatt hours of electricity per car which only releases 30 tons of carbon dioxide depending on the current global grid mix. If a Tesla owner has solar and battery storage, then they are charging their cars with renewable energy. This is how Tesla is for clean air.
Take a deep breath. What’s that smell? Is it the polluted air filled with all that toxic carbon dioxide and green house gases? Or could you be sitting in your Model 3 (or Model Y) and breathing in the air freshened by your Scentwedge air freshener?
Speaking of our products, we have another product that will also help make the world a better place. Our DeskWedge can make your car into a remote office. And when you purchase one, we plant a tree.
