Tesla CO2 emissions for 1250 mile trip

[nicpottier]

Just did a road trip from Leavenworth, WA to Boulder, CO in our Model Y and decided to run some numbers on CO2 emissions vs flying or driving a hybrid Rav4.

TLDR is that due to coal power generation in Wyoming and Utah, driving a Tesla emits about 84% as much CO2 as a Rav4 and 80% as much as two people flying. If superchargers were all getting their power from say hydro like Idaho, those numbers would be more like 23% of the emissions from a Tesla vs flying or a Rav4.

Methodology was to add up all the KWHs from our supercharges for each state and multiply that by the average CO2 emissions per KWH for that state.

You can check my work here:
Tesla: Leavenworth to Boulder

This was mildly surprising to me. I think I expected about half the emissions, not realizing that coal was just so prevalent in WY and UT. I was also somewhat surprised that flying on this trip is not that bad and is basically even to driving even an efficient car for two people. Any more than two in the car and you get real benefits and if you are alone you are better off flying. Note that I tried to pick a like for like car, a Rav4 but these numbers show that you would emit LESS CO2 driving a new Prius than you would a Tesla Model Y, which I wouldn't have expected.

This also makes me doubly glad our home is powered 100% by hydro, so most of our miles emit very little CO2. But I'm not sure I would pick to do this trip in our Tesla again until the grid is cleaned up in the states on the way.

Anyways, just thought I'd share in case anybody found that of interest.

 

[nate704]

wow. you must be retired. I wish I had extra time to do something like this. Anyway, good observation and certainly the numbers will change depends on locations.
I think most people will consider how much they can save money and time when they plan for their trips, not how much CO2 emission they will produce during the trip.

 

[nicpottier]

We did it in two days, not so bad for a two week trip.

Agree that many will look to convenience and cost first but reducing co2 emissions is the main reason we went electric so was curious about it on a trip like this.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

The emissions per gallon appears to be tank to wheel.
The numbers for the Tesla appear to be plant to wheel, but excluding charging losses on those.

 

[nicpottier]

The emissions per gallon appears to be tank to wheel.
The numbers for the Tesla appear to be plant to wheel, but excluding charging losses on those.

Yes, right! Do you have a good number for full lifecycle for US sourced gasoline per chance?

I wasn't sure how to account for charging loss, these numbers are from Tesla and I wasn't sure if they counted only what was added or the total pumped in. Looking more closely TeslaFi does have a used vs added and it appears the Tesla number is the added one. So would changing to the TeslaFi "used" number capture charging losses then?

 

[kelpcar]

I wonder about that flight calculator - there should be some variation between airplane models. United, among others, gives an estimate of their own on the booking page, though I wonder how accurate it should be deemed to be. Passenger load might also matter, unless they can load missing weight as freight. The other missing element here is the transport to/from the airport on each leg. This can be insignificant, or more substantial if the airport is 75 minutes from the destination, as it is for visiting my mom in Bend.

WY clearly is the problem on your leg, unless the SC sources from non coal. But using the state average does seem appropriate - if the SC uses any clean sources, the coal fills in the vacuum.

This is one of those examples where power isn't priced at the true cost, so there's no incentive for WY not to use cheap coal.

 

[WhiteWi]

You are saving tons of CO2 by using green electricity at home charging Tesla every year. Not on road trips. Now calculate pollution of ice in a year vs Tesla charging on Solar or hydro.

 

[nicpottier]

I wonder about that flight calculator - there should be some variation between airplane models. United, among others, gives an estimate of their own on the booking page, though I wonder how accurate it should be deemed to be. Passenger load might also matter, unless they can load missing weight as freight. The other missing element here is the transport to/from the airport on each leg. This can be insignificant, or more substantial if the airport is 75 minutes from the destination, as it is for visiting my mom in Bend.

WY clearly is the problem on your leg, unless the SC sources from non coal. But using the state average does seem appropriate - if the SC uses any clean sources, the coal fills in the vacuum.

This is one of those examples where power isn't priced at the true cost, so there's no incentive for WY not to use cheap coal.

Ya, I think there's a land of hand waving with flight carbon calculators. In theory the one I used takes into account the variables you mentioned but it does differ from the United number which is ~280 kgs for two passengers, which would further close the gap with the Tesla. As mentioned earlier I don't think the flight calculators take into account co2 emissions during extraction and refining so that should probably be 20% higher even in the most optimistic scenario.

Tesla did make some claims last year that all their superchargers would come from renewable sources:
Tesla says it will power all Superchargers with renewable energy this year

But I haven't heard more about that nor do I think that's the case currently. (not sure how they would even swing it in WY unless they had a solar/battery array at each).

I did update the numbers to take into account co2 for gasoline extraction (very very hand wavy) which puts the Tesla at a pleasing 67% of the emissions of a Rav4. I do think the KWH numbers I have there are indeed taking into account charging losses. (at least the TeslaFi numbers seem to match close enough for me to believe Tesla is charging what is going into the car, not just what is being stored) There are probably further losses in the AC/DC conversion though.