This is the kind of thing Toyota and Nissan have engineered out of their cars 20 years ago. I only changed the Cabin Air Filter in my Nissan once in 20 years.
There are Chinese vendors on Amazon selling the Cabin air filter for $15 with the tools required to remove it included.
intercst
Toyota keeps asking my wife if she wants it changed. So I don’t think they have engineered it out of the car.
That may be more to collect a service billing than out of need, but it depends on how dusty an area you live in.
I drove from Texas to Alaska a couple of times and had to have the car detailed inside and out from all the road dust it collected.
The need to frequently change (every year or so) the Tesla Cabin Filter seems to be a design flaw causing moisture to collect in the HVAC system.
intercst
I think you are correct, it is more a service billing issue.
Tesla recommends every 2 years for normal use, every year for heavy use.
There is definitely a design flaw there … in both the 3 and the Y. Some people have added “pre filters” up under the hood where the air intake is, but that only solves part of the problem. I don’t know how they can solve it though, it could just be that there isn’t enough dry airflow to get the moisture out. I don’t know why an EV would have less airflow than an ICE vehicle, maybe low drag design? Anyway, it’s something I would really like Tesla to fix someday.
I changed mine after 5 years and it was still pretty clean, but changed it anyway since it is a bit of a pain to do.
Mike