What do new Model 3 owners think about...

[StealthP3D]

What do new Model 3 owners think about when driving their new car?

I was sitting in traffic with my wife yesterday and saw all the exhaust spewing out of the cars in front of me. Not one electric car to be seen. It looked like this:

I mentioned to my wife how utterly ridiculous it was for people to transport themselves inside little boxes that poisoned the air in our towns and cities. How ridiculous it was the way most of us just sit in the toxic gasses spewed out from all the tailpipes without questioning whether it was a sensible or intelligent way to get around. She told me she thought about that all the time the first few months of ownership but, over time, it became such a common thought it was easily dismissed from her mind.

 

[AZjohnInCA]

Only when the pain gets great enough things will change.

I would guess the only thing the ICE drivers think about is getting from point A to point B at a “normal” price for gas. I bet the large majority of drivers never think about how the exhaust will kill life.

sometime in the not too distant future oil prices will spike high enough that maybe more ICE drivers will try to save money and go EV. Maybe at that point they will also feel better about reducing the poisoning emission or maybe they still could care less????

 

[mhinterseher]

People can see exhaust only during winter while it is produced all year around. Since I drive an EV I got a lot more sensitive to gasoline fumes and exhaust.

 

[BluestarE3]

People can see exhaust only during winter while it is produced all year around. Since I drive an EV I got a lot more sensitive to gasoline fumes and exhaust.

Same here. When my wife pulls into our garage in her minivan, we now have to leave the garage door open for a while to air out before closing it. The trapped exhaust smell didn't used to bother us as much before we got the Model 3.

 

[Jay24]

Plenty of carbon footprints left behind in the creation of Tesla and other EV batteries. I'm not saying by any means that it's more than ICE vehicles, but we aren't saving the planet or anything by driving a Tesla. It isn't "ridiculous that people transport themselves" in ICE vehicles. A few years ago, that was pretty much their only option. Today, the majority of people still have no other options. Tesla's aren't exactly cheap vehicles, nor are other EV's. When the average household income in the US is less than $60k, even a $35k car is out of the question.

Don't be so judgy. Be happy with the vehicle that you have, but don't look down on others for not doing it your way.

 

[07e92]

While EV is not polluting the air, what about the huge battery it carries once it degrades or reaches the end of life? Will the dismissal of the battery have any environmental damage?

 

[BluestarE3]

My son told me that the extraction of materials and manufacturing of EVs also pollutes, so I shouldn't delude myself thinking that my getting a Tesla would be beneficial to the environment. I told him that's true for any human made form of transport: even riding public transit or on a bicycle. If he doesn't want to leave a carbon footprint, he'd have to walk everywhere... barefoot.

I was replacing my 17 year-old Prius, so since I'm getting a new car, I want it to be an EV. And if I'm getting an EV, I want it to be a Tesla.

 

[JayAreOhhh]

My son told me that the extraction of materials and manufacturing of EVs also pollutes, so I shouldn't delude myself thinking that my getting a Tesla would be beneficial to the environment. I told him that's true for any human made form of transport: even riding public transit or on a bicycle. If he doesn't want to leave a carbon footprint, he'd have to walk everywhere... barefoot.

I was replacing my 17 year-old Prius, so since I'm getting a new car, I want it to be an EV. And if I'm getting an EV, I want it to be a Tesla.

May want to make sure he stays away from beans so he doesn't pollute the air

 

[gcsmoore1]

I remember when everything smelled of cigarette smoke.
Now it is so rare I can smell it a mile away.

 

[StealthP3D]

Plenty of carbon footprints left behind in the creation of Tesla and other EV batteries. I'm not saying by any means that it's more than ICE vehicles, but we aren't saving the planet or anything by driving a Tesla. It isn't "ridiculous that people transport themselves" in ICE vehicles. A few years ago, that was pretty much their only option. Today, the majority of people still have no other options. Tesla's aren't exactly cheap vehicles, nor are other EV's. When the average household income in the US is less than $60k, even a $35k car is out of the question.

Don't be so judgy. Be happy with the vehicle that you have, but don't look down on others for not doing it your way.

There are a lot of alternatives to everyone being solo in a little box spewing out toxic gases. I think people have always been around these toxic gases so we just irrationally accept them. When someone is diagnosed with asthma or COPD (or internal cancer), their first thought is probably not "maybe it was from living in a city/town full of gas/diesel cars".

 

[StealthP3D]

While EV is not polluting the air, what about the huge battery it carries once it degrades or reaches the end of life? Will the dismissal of the battery have any environmental damage?

Of course. Every living thing has a carbon footprint. It would be irrational to try to make it as big as possible because "everyone causes damage".

 

[blazeform]

It's a tradeoff. Tesla batteries are horrible for the environment but not all environmental harm manifests the same way. Runoff from mining and old batteries seeps into the water, but the pollutants are concentrated in smaller areas unlike fossil fuels which have similar concentrated areas but also massive emissions from millions of individual vehicles.

 

[StealthP3D]

It's a tradeoff. Tesla batteries are horrible for the environment but not all environmental harm manifests the same way. Runoff from mining and old batteries seeps into the water, but the pollutants are concentrated in smaller areas unlike fossil fuels which have similar concentrated areas but also massive emissions from millions of individual vehicles.

This thread is not about the massive pollution of oil extraction, refining and transport (or the relatively minor pollution from battery manufacturing and eventual recycling) it's about the tailpipe emissions we are all forced to breathe and that comes from the butt end of ICE cars. That fills our cities up with a layer of ugly, smelly, unhealthy air instead of the air being refreshingly pure and clean.

 

[IceIceBaby]

Plenty of carbon footprints left behind in the creation of Tesla and other EV batteries. I'm not saying by any means that it's more than ICE vehicles, but we aren't saving the planet or anything by driving a Tesla. It isn't "ridiculous that people transport themselves" in ICE vehicles. A few years ago, that was pretty much their only option. Today, the majority of people still have no other options. Tesla's aren't exactly cheap vehicles, nor are other EV's. When the average household income in the US is less than $60k, even a $35k car is out of the question.

Don't be so judgy. Be happy with the vehicle that you have, but don't look down on others for not doing it your way.

This..... Whenever I see posts like this, I think the same exact thing...

 

[IceIceBaby]

My son told me that the extraction of materials and manufacturing of EVs also pollutes, so I shouldn't delude myself thinking that my getting a Tesla would be beneficial to the environment. I told him that's true for any human made form of transport: even riding public transit or on a bicycle. If he doesn't want to leave a carbon footprint, he'd have to walk everywhere... barefoot.

I was replacing my 17 year-old Prius, so since I'm getting a new car, I want it to be an EV. And if I'm getting an EV, I want it to be a Tesla.

your son is a wiser man than most. myself included LOL.

 

[swaltner]

I remember when everything smelled of cigarette smoke.
Now it is so rare I can smell it a mile away.

While I rarely notice exhaust smell in traffic, I suspect this is why I’m so much more sensitive to exhaust smell while walking through parking lots, particularly in cold weather when the choke mechanism makes the engine run so much richer. When you don’t smell it all the time, you really notice it when it’s there. This is also likely why one of the previous replies mentioned needing to let the garage air out when the gas car gets parked. I do the same thing when I park the Ariel Atom after going for a drive. It would be fun to convert that to electric at some point.

 

[IceIceBaby]

While I rarely notice exhaust smell in traffic, I suspect this is why I’m so much more sensitive to exhaust smell while walking through parking lots, particularly in cold weather when the choke mechanism makes the engine run so much richer. When you don’t smell it all the time, you really notice it when it’s there. This is also likely why one of the previous replies mentioned needing to let the garage air out when the gas car gets parked. I do the same thing when I park the Ariel Atom after going for a drive. It would be fun to convert that to electric at some point.

How do you like the Atom? I always wanted to drive one.... I think they're awesome.

 

[jjrandorin]

This thread is not about the massive pollution of oil extraction, refining and transport (or the relatively minor pollution from battery manufacturing and eventual recycling) it's about the tailpipe emissions we are all forced to breathe and that comes from the butt end of ICE cars. That fills our cities up with a layer of ugly, smelly, unhealthy air instead of the air being refreshingly pure and clean.

If this post, as you, the OP states, is about "tailpipe emissions", then it does not belong in the "ordering model 3" section. It belongs here:

Energy, Environment, and Policy

 

[Rachmaninov]

When I was stationed in Europe many years ago, one of the first things I noticed was the very large % of people riding bicycles daily.Very old people would actually even use them as walkers by leaning on the side of them as they walked.

They still have the same air quality issues as we do although they are probably in better shape.

Wasn’t there documented research that shows lawn mowers and barbecues emit more pollution than vehicles?

The Tesla model 3 is a great step forwards for lots of reasons.

 

[wiparker824]

My son told me that the extraction of materials and manufacturing of EVs also pollutes, so I shouldn't delude myself thinking that my getting a Tesla would be beneficial to the environment. I told him that's true for any human made form of transport: even riding public transit or on a bicycle. If he doesn't want to leave a carbon footprint, he'd have to walk everywhere... barefoot.

I was replacing my 17 year-old Prius, so since I'm getting a new car, I want it to be an EV. And if I'm getting an EV, I want it to be a Tesla.

not just walk everywhere barefoot, but also completely naked (or at least without clothing as you’d find in stores today, you could manufacture something out of leaves I suppose), and can’t live in a house/apt of any kind, and can’t eat any food from stores really, have to be things you find in the wild. which is why these sorts of arguments are so silly... the idea is to reduce your carbon footprint to whatever you can reasonably do, if it means you can afford an EV great, if not there’s still plenty you can do to reduce your carbon footprint, and even if you have an EV there’s still plenty you can do to further reduce your carbon footprint. this idea that it’s us vs. them when it comes to owning an EV or not, is a silly one that isn’t helpful.