Tesla’s carbon footprint is finally coming into focus, and it’s bigger than the company let on in the past


Two rows of Tesla cars in a parking lot, photographed from above.
In an aerial view, Tesla cars sit parked in a lot at the Tesla factory on April 20th, 2022, in Fremont, California.  | Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Tesla released its 2022 Impact Report this week, and it gives the clearest picture yet of the electric car company’s carbon footprint. Tesla disclosed numbers on its supply chain emissions for the first time, which makes its overall carbon footprint much bigger than it has reported in the past.

Last year, the company only disclosed how much greenhouse gas pollution it generated from its direct operations and from customers charging their EVs. Altogether that was roughly equivalent to 2.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. But that missed the big picture since supply chain pollution — considered indirect emissions — often make up a major chunk of a company’s carbon footprint.

This year, Tesla finally released data on its supply chain...

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