[gajjanag]

Tesla also has a carbon footprint. I won't deny that it is lower, but it isn't some "order of magnitude" improvement over a hybrid vehicle. Rather, it is approximately 35%: https://electrek.co/2020/09/01/tesla-model-3-emits-less-life...

If you really want to go down this route and account for this externality, you should calculate the cost of carbon capture. Costs of carbon capture are around $100 per metric tonne. The above link suggests a differential of around 6-10 tonnes of C02 in favor of the Tesla over a hybrid. This amount to an extra $1000 in favor of the Tesla. Once again, this doesn't change my point about cost per mile at all.

[ericd]

Note that it's not a 35% improvement/decrease, it's a 65% decrease, or put another way, 1/3 the emissions. It's not an order of magnitude, but a factor of 3 ain't bad, and CO2 from battery pack production will get better as the energy sources used get cleaner. Also, it looks like they're assuming a car lifetime of 250k km, which I think is pretty conservative for these. They also assumed a linear decrease in CO2 in power generation, which they say is a conservative assumption, and I agree. A number of their other assumptions lean on the conservative side, I assume for being more defensible, so I'd be somewhat surprised if the real difference isn't a good bit larger.