Clean Air for All.
The Game-Changing Impact of Electric Cars on Environmental Equity.
With gas prices soaring, 2022 is very quickly being dubbed the year of the electric car. However, while electric vehicles (EVs) can help save us money, reduce our carbon footprint, and protect our domestic energy independence, the transition to electrification is also a direct path to environmental justice, especially in our pollution-filled cities across the United States.
What is environmental justice?
Environmental justice embraces the idea that we all have a right to equal protection and equal enforcement of environmental laws and regulations. Studies have shown lower income neighborhoods, and specifically communities of color, are more likely to be situated near highways, high traffic areas, manufacturing plants, garbage dumps, and so on and as such, disproportionately bear the brunt of environmental deterioration or pollution. While housing may be cheaper in these areas, it comes at a high cost for residents including exposure to contaminated soil and polluted air.
Layering on, these communities also frequently experience the worst of climate-change provoked disasters like hurricanes, wildfires, and flooding—impacting their livelihoods, homes, health, and financial security.
Dr. Robert Bullard wrote, “whether by conscious design or institutional neglect, communities of color in urban ghettos, in rural ‘poverty pockets’, or on economically impoverished Native-American reservations face some of the worst environmental devastation in the nation.”
So how are EVs making a difference?
While electric vehicles aren’t perfect, they do emit 66% less emissions than their ICE counterparts and that number only increases when EVs replace SUVs which are built on a truck chassis and emit 14% more carbon dioxide than the average small passenger car. Unbeknownst to most drivers, SUVs are the second largest global cause of CO2 emissions over the last decade, greater than shipping, aviation, heavy industry and even semi-trucks.
“Unbeknownst to most drivers, SUVs are the second largest global cause of CO2 emissions over the last decade, greater than shipping, aviation, heavy industry and even semi-trucks.”
By reducing emissions, electric cars are helping to save lives, reducing asthma-related health issues, and generally bettering public health. The American Lung Association’s report Zeroing in on Healthy Air: A National Assessment of the Health and Climate Benefits of Zero-Emission Transportation and Electricity supports this, stating “sustained actions to spur the transition away from combustion and toward non-polluting technologies can yield major benefits to lung health, air quality and the climate.” This is a huge win for all of us, but especially those neighborhoods bordering highways and in high congestion areas.
Charging accessibility for all.
Cities throughout the U.S. recognize the increasing number of EVs on our highways is not enough, nor a clear path to full environmental equity, and are taking dramatic steps to facilitate the adoption of EVs for lower income residents while also reducing their city’s overarching carbon footprint. They are accomplishing this through fleet, school bus, and mass transit electrification and by implementing EV rideshare programs and providing access to electric scooters and bikes as alternatives to driving, in addition to placing charging stations in neighborhoods where residents might not have their own driveways.
Case in point, the City and County of Denver considers EV equity to be paramount to meeting their EV and clean air goals. As part of this effort, equal accessibility to charging is taking center stage.
Currently, 80% of all EV charging happens at home; however, for low income and minority families renting, the lack of accessibility to fueling is a real barrier to purchase. The City and County of Denver is therefore investing in public charging stations in locations like community rec centers, public schools, and city buildings—all to increase access with a heavy focus on areas with low incomes and a high-density multifamily living.
“Equity is a critical focal point of our city’s environmental efforts,” Denver Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer explained. “In our efforts to increase accessibility, we’ve installed curbside charging stations in lower income neighborhoods and included stations in subsidized housing, along with making electric transportation like e-bikes and scooters a priority.”
At the state level, the Charge Ahead Colorado grant program administered by the Colorado Energy Office has provided financial support for electric vehicle charging stations (EVSE) and has increased the number of stations statewide by nearly 3,000% since launching the program. With equity at the forefront, priority for these funds is given to organizations and businesses excluded from existing state tax credits and incentives, including multifamily housing—increasing accessibility for those who cannot charge at a single-family home.
Accessible charging is great, but what about the cost of cars?
Even with EV cars flying off showroom floors and battery prices dropping, electric cars continue to be viewed as an out-of-reach luxury. This perception is rooted in the early days of Tesla. When Elon Musk released the first Model S years in 2012, it was assumed Tesla, much like Ferrari and Lamborghini, would never make it to the mainstream. Flash-forward to today, and worldwide, there is an EV sold every six seconds and, in the U.S., alone, Tesla dominates the EV market, selling over two million electric vehicles with over 300,000 those in Q1’22.
While the price stigma still exists, affordability and price parity are well within sight. Today, you can buy an EV for under $30K. The 2022 Nissan LEAF, for example, stickers at $27,400 and that’s before the $7,500 federal tax credit and any state incentives. And with automakers worldwide ceasing R&D on internal combustion engine (ICE) powered vehicles and focusing entirely on EVs, prices are expected to continue to fall. Many are also shifting away from repurposing existing ICE platforms and tooling, creating designs exclusively for EVs to further bring prices down and overall, increase their fuel efficiency.
More importantly, there’s the used market. While most believe EVs are relatively new, they’ve actually been on the market for more than ten years, and used models are some of the best buys on the market. For example, the 2012 version of LEAF can often be bought for $10,000 or less. And all EVs are cheaper to fuel and maintain—as much as 3x-6x cheaper depending on gas prices.
At the forefront of change.
As the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, public and private transportation needs to evolve to save our planet, but also to dramatically improve public health for all of us. As U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg shared on Earth Day, “The transportation sector is … the biggest part of the problem. But it also means we can be the biggest part of the solution.”
On its own, electrified transportation will not resolve the decades of environmental inequities and injustice; however, as the largest contributor to the problem, adoption is a critical step forward and one that is already having an immediate and direct impact on the communities most affected. And with cities both big and small jumping in to ensure equitable fueling access and automakers dedicating resources and building out a wide portfolio of options, not only are there more opportunities for all Americans to contribute to the positive outcome, but an ability to further expedite this positive change.
This article was originally published by the International Parking and Mobility Institute (IPMI) in their Parking & Mobility Magazine, August 2022.
Written by Margaret-Ann Leavitt, Chief Marketing Officer at National Car Charging & Aloha Charge.