reports. The publication estimates that the average person will spend around five years of their life within vehicles, though automobiles aren’t typically the places with the cleanest air. Still, products like the HEPA filter from Tesla have been copied by at least one automaker, and you can also find aftermarket products that will perform similar filtration.
Even without the presence of harmful wildfire smoke, car cabins include a number of volatile and near-volatile chemicals that are vented out from plastics and flame retardants within the vehicle. Additionally, damaging particulate matter from things like car tires and other carcinogenic emissions are common when driving on the road.
Tesla’s Bioweapon Defense Mode and the related HEPA filters are now standard in the automaker’s Model S, Model X and Model Y, though the filter is considered too large to fit into the Model 3. Few other automakers have followed in Tesla’s filtering footsteps as of yet, with the exception of Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Still, these companies basically offer cleaner air as a pricey add-on.with a $450 upgrade offering a three-layered “energizing air control system.