Tesla Touts Military-Grade Air Filtration System

Tesla Motors Inc. says the HEPA (high-efficiency particulate arrestance) filtration system used in its Model X and Model S electric vehicles is as much as 800 times better at filtering out viruses, bacteria and other contaminants than traditional vehicle systems.

The HEPA designation signifies the filter captures 99.97% of particles 0.3 micrometer and larger. Such filters typically are relegated to hospitals, clean rooms, spacecraft and military applications.

In vehicles, the filter could help occupants survive a “military-grade bio attack,” Tesla says. It could effectively block anthrax, the plague and most other bacteria—as well as pollen, dust and fungal spores—from entering a vehicle’s passenger cabin.

Tesla’s HVAC system has three modes: circulating air from outside the car, re-circulating air that’s already inside the passenger compartment and the so-called “bioweapon defense mode.” The latter, which is activated via a dashboard button, creates positive pressure inside the cabin to prevent outside air and contaminants from entering the cabin. The system also cycles all interior air through the HEPA filter to clean it and eliminate traces of potentially harmful particles.

Tesla tested vehicles equipped with the HEPA filtration system in real-world driving environments near landfills, marshes and congested, smoggy cities in California and China. The company also tested the device in a Model X that had been sealed in a small bubble with “extreme” pollution levels. Tesla says the air in the enclosure registered more than 80 times higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s pollution limit for "good" air quality and almost 20 times Beijing's pollution levels.

The filtration system took less than two minutes to reduce pollution levels inside the Model X from what it describes as “extremely dangerous” to virtually undetectable by measuring equipment, according to the company. It says the system also scrubbed the air surrounding the vehicle to reduce 2.5-micrometer particulate matter pollutants by 40% within minutes.

Tesla says about twice as many people are killed worldwide from air pollution as from car crashes. The company cites World Health Organization data indicating regular exposure to Beijing's extremely high pollution levels reduces average life expectancy by 23 months. Similar data show that average lifespans are cut 10 months in Mexico City, 9 months in Hong Kong, 8 months in Los Angeles and 7 months in Paris and London.