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Electric vehicles for everyone

California is leading efforts to make the transition from combustion engines to electric vehicles fair and just for all including low-income groups

California has spearheaded US efforts to make electric vehicles accessible to low-income groups, but the issue of equity in the transport sector’s energy transition is increasingly expected to be on the radar of policymakers elsewhere. Equitable electric vehicle policies can help ensure society’s most vulnerable share the benefits and do not bear a disproportionate burden in the move to a cleaner transport system, helping increase the acceptability and achievement of ambitious targets

A new service called Green Raiteros” has been launched in Huron, a small farming community in California’s San Joaquin Valley that ranks as one of the state’s poorest cities. The service features vehicle charging infrastructure, a fleet of shared electric vehicles (EVs), both new and used, and an aim to expand, through a group of volunteer drivers, or raiteros”, that offer sliding-scale rates to connect the predominantly Latino community with Fresno. Although Fresno is only 84 kilometres away, the only public transport alternative now available is a six-hour round bus trip with infrequent service. The Green Raiteros project was developed by the Latino Environmental Advancement and Policy Institute founded by Huron mayor Rey León and builds on an informal ride-sharing system that has existed for decades but relied on older, polluting cars. Fees are sliding-scale, based on a passenger’s income and the distance travelled. Green Raiteros received $519,400 in funding from the California Public Utility Commission and is just one of a raft of initiatives in the state, which targets five million zero emission vehicles (ZEV) on the road by 2030 and 250,000 EV charging stations by 2025, to improve EV access for poorer residents. A major source of funding for that purpose has come from California Climate Investments (CCI), a statewide initiative using funds from the state’s carbon emissions cap-and-trade system, the world’s fourth largest carbon trading programme, with a mandate to direct at least 35% of investments to disadvantaged and low-income communities. California is also aiming to have 100% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2045, so the idea is that EVs will increasingly be truly emission free. CCI has provided funding to BlueLa, operated by the French group Bolloré, which began providing its EV car-sharing service to underserved communities in central Los Angeles in April and offers a cheaper rate for qualified low-income drivers. CCI grants and low-interest loans are also made available for low-income state residents for the purchase of new and used hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles. Through the voluntary car scrap and replacement programme Clean Cars 4 All, CCI also provides incentives to lower-income people to scrap an older, polluting car and replace it with a zero or near zero-emission one.

Electrifying the US

California’s plans to increase EV use among low-income groups has received a boost from the massive dieselgate settlement with the US government by German car manufacturer Volkswagen over its use of software to avoid compliance with emission standards. As part of the deal, Volkswagen agreed to invest $2 billion over a decade for EV infrastructure and awareness efforts, including $800 million in California alone. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has stipulated that Volkswagen’s investments, which are being made through a specially created unit known as Electrify America, must also prioritise investments in poorer, more polluted communities. Electrify America is investing $44 million in the Sac-to-Zero programme in Sacramento involving EV car-sharing, electric public buses, and a network of EV charging stations. In November 2018, a fleet of 20 e-cars serving ten multi-family properties, each with a charging station and the majority located in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, were put into service. That fleet is to be expanded to over 140 vehicles and more than 70 sites by early next year. Transportation smog is the largest source of emissions in California and hurts the lungs and hearts of low-income people of colour the most,” stated Joel Espino earlier this year. He is environmental equity legal counsel at Greenlining Institute, a California non-profit among those advocating for transport equity measures. Low-income people in the state also have a more difficult time meeting transportation costs. We need the robust deployment of EV charging stations and other EV programmes in low-income communities to cut exposure to car pollution and improve health. The presence of EV charging stations in our neediest communities can also unlock the opportunity for lower cost travel for people, transit agencies and small businesses due to the lower fuel and maintenance costs of EVs compared to gas-power vehicles,” said Espino. While California stands out for the number of measures aimed at EV equity, other US states are also looking to bring EVs to a wider public. New York, in a plan published in September 2018, describes how it plans to use VW settlement funds and other investments earmarked for electrification and other clean transport measures to provide substantial public health benefits by reducing emissions from hundreds of trucks, buses and other equipment that operate in proximity to low and moderate income communities that bear much of the burden of air pollution”.

Fair transition

In Europe, ensuring the energy transition is a fair one is already part of discussions on transport electrification and is expected to be increasingly important. The distributional impacts of the transition to EVs…has to be addressed in the design and monitoring of EV support policy,” French research institute IDDRI states in a report on EV rollout in France in 2017. The upfront financing challenge may be particularly relevant for lower income households, while at the same time, massive rollout of EVs will require that middle and lower income households start to purchase electric vehicles.” At a pan-European level, the best way to ensure EVs reach low-income consumers is to set ambitious carbon dioxide emission standards for carmakers, argues Dimitri Vergne from BEUC, a Brussels-based umbrella organisation for European consumer associations. EU lawmakers are now in the midst of hashing out an agreement on a regulation to set stricter CO2 emission standards for new cars for the period through to 2030, with an agreement expected to be announced towards the end of 2018. We believe a high level of ambition would help push EVs onto the market and would ultimately feed into second and third hand markets” where most low-income people buy cars, Vergne says. Greater ambition on the regulatory front could also help speed up further declines in the prices of EVs. Our analysis has shown that EVs will become cheaper to own and run than conventional cars in the early 2020s. They will have even greater benefits for low-income consumers because they have very low maintenance and refuelling costs.”

Providing subsidies

France is among the countries that already provides subsidies for used EV purchases, Vergne says. IDDRI suggests specific policies could also be considered to increase confidence in second-hand EV markets. These could include establishing information standards on residual battery performance, guarantees on the replacement of batteries or the development of a market for second-hand EV batteries. Really poor people can’t afford any car, electric or otherwise,” points out Julia Poliscanova from Transport & Environment, a sustainable transport umbrella organisation in Brussels. She adds that more efficient public transport and increased shared mobility could go a long way in satisfying mobility needs. EVs are well-placed for doing that.” Car ownership will not be the best solution for all consumers and programmes that are designed to assist low-income consumers use other methods to serve their transportation needs,” agrees the National Consumer Law Center of the US in a recent report on equitable investment in EVs and transport electrification. Indeed, sustainable transport proponents are hoping more people of all incomes will increasingly switch to shared mobility.

Accessible and equitable

Yet expanding the use of mobility options like car-sharing in disadvantaged communities may present particular challenges. Incentives and risk-sharing partnerships can encourage the placement of EV car-sharing vehicles in areas where the private sector may not want to invest due to profitability and other reasons, but just because a car-sharing vehicle is placed somewhere doesn’t mean it will be used,” stresses Susan Shaheen, a sustainable transport professor at UC Berkeley in California. Our studies have shown that car-sharing users tend to be younger, upper income, Caucasian and with a high level of educational attainment.” While the reasons for this aren’t well understood, Shaheen says a lack of service availability, high service costs compared to wages and the lack of banking and/or smart phone access are among the possible contributing factors that may need to be considered. UK development and infrastructure consultancy Peter Brett says policymakers should also begin addressing equity issues involving charging that could arise when more EVs are in the hands of low-income drivers. Charging, in the UK and elsewhere, is typically done at home at night when electricity prices are cheaper. But as more EVs end up in the hands of lower-income people, they may have no choice but to use more expensive public charging hubs, the consultancy cautions. The petrol station model does work, so we need something similar for people who can’t charge at home that will also help make charging prices more equitable,” says Scott Witchalls, transport and infrastructure director at Peter Brett. Since people also buy groceries at petrol stations in the UK, an investment model could be created along the lines of mobile phone licensing auctions, in which investors could offset potentially lower revenue from charging at electric stations they operate with retail trade opportunities, adds Jonathan Riggall, energy and natural resources director with the consultancy. The idea is to offer something that is accessible and equitable for all,” he says. Back in Huron, the Green Raiteros are trying to do the same.


TEXT Heather O’Brian