MIT Project Proved Environmental and Economic Value of Tesla Model 3

[GZDongles]

This great tool and underlying research from MIT's Trancik Lab shows that all Tesla Model 3 variants are stroller performers for both lifecycle ownership and operational costs and lifecycle carbon emissions!

Not that we Tesla owners need to be any more self-congratulatory, but it is interesting to see a holistic lifecycle emissions and cost picture presented this way!

 

[puckpurnell]

Very good although it is too bad the black square blocks out the bottom.

 

[GZDongles]

Very good although it is too bad the black square blocks out the bottom.

I think that's down more to my poor screenshotting abilities than the site- each car is a selectable data point and you can select several to go to a comparison tab!

 

[nayr14]

I'd like to see the environmental impact of manufacturing of the battery (including mining, refining, transport etc) quantified as well when compared to an ICE vehicle. I've read that todays batteries cost around the same environmental impact as manufacturing the vehicle itself.

 

[novox77]

I'd like to see the environmental impact of manufacturing of the battery (including mining, refining, transport etc) quantified as well when compared to an ICE vehicle. I've read that todays batteries cost around the same environmental impact as manufacturing the vehicle itself.

battery costs are part of that tool. you need to pick the cars you want to see and then view by barchart.

 

[vogz]

That's really cool. Super easy now to show someone that the extra environmental costs of battery production are very quickly offset by driving the car.

 

[int32_t]

This sleeper thread is the coolest thing I've read on TMC in a while. Thanks for sharing!

 

[EmOne]

Well, I love my Tesla, but I think the title of this thread would better read "indicates" instead of "proved"...

 

[GZDongles]

Well, I love my Tesla, but I think the title of this thread would better read "indicates" instead of "proved"...

That's... Actually a good point! The devil is in the details of the methodology and data sources, and this is leveraging research from a lot of different places that makes it hard to fact check. Regardless, I think it's a unique and interesting tool to play around with.

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

Not that it's fair to compare a Telsa 3P to a clunky BMW M3 but it's interesting that the Tesla is 2/3 the lifetime cost and 1/3 the emissions despite Tesla's vastly higher performance and lower sales price.

I was surprised to see the CO2 emissions from *manufacturing* the Tesla are double that of the BMW as I expected the rather wasteful mining/melting/machining of iron parts for the BMW engine/transmission to be more air polluting than the comparatively meticulous mining/processing of lithium for batteries.

Also interesting is that, mile for mile, simply *refining* the gas for the BMW creates as much CO2 as actually *charging* the Tesla.

Anyway, this is a well built tool that attempts to include all the key parameters for a fair analysis in the hands of a skilled user. Hopefully some far smarter folks can use this to make much more fair and meaningful comparisons than the lazy default-value thing I did here.