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The COVID-19 pandemic has driven the population to be extremely vigilant towards personal as well as shared hygiene necessitating use of facemask, maintaining social distancing, frequent hand wash and vehicle sanitization. Humans are exposed to pollutants such as Particulate Matter (PM), oxide of Sulphur (SOx), oxides of Nitrogen (NOx), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Ozone (O3), Total Volatile Organic Compound (TVOC) and pathogens such as fungi, bacteria, viruses (FBV) either through air or by direct contact with contaminated surfaces. In a vehicle cabin, occupants are exposed to both fresh and recirculating air through air-conditioning system and they also come in contact with touch points such as seats, steering wheel and armrest, which may be contaminated.

In the past five years, Indian cities have been consistently appearing in the list of top 15 world’s most polluted cities. Every day, a common man in India spends more than 2 hours on the road due to numerous reasons, thus exposed to inhale highly polluted air. Further, the passenger car users is exposed to ~ 6 times more polluted air as compared to ambient air reason being the air is recirculated through the air conditioning system. Prolonged exposure to such polluted/ recirculated air shows increasing trend in respiratory illnesses, breathing discomfort and fatigue. This paper discusses the key challenges involved in incorporating cabin air filter as cabin air quality enhancer in current mobility solutions.