Consumer Adoption of Electric Vehicles: An Evaluation of Local Programs in the United States

While transportation electrification is critically important for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, light duty electric vehicle adoption by individuals is still very low in the United States. The Biden administration has begun taking major actions to support the electric vehicle transition, particularly through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and many state governments have also taken actions like offering electric vehicle purchase rebates and providing funding for charging infrastructure. Less is known about actions being taken to advance electric vehicle adoption on the local level, as municipal government EV programs have historically been a patchwork of uncoordinated efforts. This study is aimed at understanding local electric vehicle adoption programs, including the types of actions that they use and the demographic and geographic characteristics of municipalities with electric vehicle programs. The study involved examining a random sample of more than 2,000 municipalities of all sizes from all 50 states and documenting any electric vehicle-related actions; these actions were then analyzed qualitatively using a codebook of common electric vehicle adoption actions in the categories of infrastructure, policy, financial incentives, information and outreach, and equity. Additionally, a sample of 30 investor-owned utilities was analyzed to understand how utilities support consumer electric vehicle adoption. The results of this research include a report, an interactive map of local-level electric vehicle programs, and a searchable database containing the codebook, the sampled municipalities and utilities, and descriptions of all of the electric vehicle actions identified. The goals of this research are to create a better understanding of the measures taken to support consumer electric vehicle adoption at the local level and to ultimately accelerate the nationwide transition to electric vehicles.Master of ScienceSchool for Environment and SustainabilityUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/172221/3/Consumer Adoption of Electric Vehicles.pd