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.
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.