Air purifiers in cars

You might have come across articles of airline fuselages that are equipped with a HEPA filters. These systems are designed with more stringent in-cabin air purifying systems that filter the air inside the aircrafts, helping control airborne viruses from spreading in-flight. Are cars also equipped with the same filtration system?

For now, only a few current high-end cars are equipped HEPA Filters like the Kia Carnival. In these cars, the filters are attached to a built-in Air Purifier System. 

But what does a HEPA Filter do and is it really effective in controlling Covid 19?

A HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) filter attached to a pre-designed volumetric air purifier is an effective way of significantly reducing airborne microbial particles that recirculates from the car’s airconditioning System or enters the cars cabin from the fresh air vents. But it is good to note that has not been any study that claims that it safeguards against the coronavirus effectively.

Theoretically, HEPA filters, being tightknit, maze-like fibers, can capture particles as small as the coronavirus, though quality varies by manufacturer. The construction of the HEPA Filter forces tiny particles sucked in by the airconditioning system to bounce around the tight fibers of the filter, eventually get trapped instead of passing through the filter.  

Most new cars have cabin air filters that periodically needs to be cleaned or changed, more like the filters found in your Home airconditioning. These filters are designed for keeping larger particles, like dust, out of the airconditioning System.  Surely, HEPA filters do a better job of capturing even smaller particles than standard OEM (Original Equipment) filters, the ones that are installed in newer cars.

But a HEPA cabin air filter installed in a car’s airconditioning system is not designed to effectively filter out all of the air that’s is already in the interior simply because it is not volumetrically designed to do so. For example, if a corona virus infected passenger loads the rear seat, the virus the passenger exhales may still scatter through the cabin before it gets recirculated by the Airconditioning System. A HEPA filter might do too little if incorrectly situated to filter all the air in the cabin. With that said, a cabin filter is still an essential maintenance item that should be changed at the car manufacturer’s recommended interval especially with cars that ply in dusty or polluted environments.

There are online air purifiers equipped with ionizers. These are plugged into cigarette lighter power outlets. The purpose of these devices is to make polluting particles stick to surfaces rather than float around in the air. Some available air purifiers are also equipped with the HEPA filters. Though these are effective in purifying air inside the car, these do nothing to counteract the risk of airborne molecules that carry viruses if you have an infected passenger inside your car. There is just no known study that I see that can prove it.

The most useful of all filters in the car is the engine’s intake filter. An engine air filter traps unwanted particles that may be harmful to the engine like dust. Instead of buying aftermarket air purifiers for the car, I’d rather you religiously change the engine intake filter at the manufacturer’s suggested interval. It won’t save you from getting Covid but it will certainly do well for the environment.