Electric Vehicles (EVs) are no longer an emerging technology and governments and manufacturers (despite the recent hit pieces and headlines to the contrary) are fully on board. The EV race is picking up a rapid pace, new models, new incentives and a host of new battery technology an the usual mix of geopolitics and price wars that come with it all. It’s an electric rush as we see the total numbers of drivers switch their gasoline cars and switch to an EV for a clean, green future.
But are we looking at the right numbers and in the right places? A recent study identifies a unique segment of the U.S population, known as “superusers” – they drive an extraordinary amount of miles each year in mostly second hand gasoline SUVs and pickup trucks. They’re just 10% of American drivers yet consume a staggering 35% of all gasoline, to put it in context that’s more than the total gasoline consumption of China! These figures are staggering as they are alarming for a host of reasons. Who are these people and why on earth are they driving so much?
Before you rush to judgment and pointing fingers, consider the long shadow cast by misguided land use, educational and economic decisions that got us here, and the resulting increasing distance between homes, jobs, care and daily necessities of life. Decades of car-centric planning, increasing costs of living, economic barriers, and soaring housing costs have created the conditions that these individuals find themselves in a cycle of long commutes and dependence on increasingly expensive to operate and maintain vehicles. This group now shoulders the highest economic, social, environmental cost of their high-mileage burden compared to the general population.
Forget well-off, early adopter, work-from-home suburbanites with their subsidized EVs, solar panels, and battery walls. This is not about them. They’re also not the central city dwellers like me who live in compact communities with the choice of not needing to own a car and mostly get around by a plethora of choices like walking, bicycle, public transit and ride-hailing.
No, they’re a different group altogether, living further away in more affordable adjacent towns or on the suburban/rural fringe. Their typical work includes a mix of hustling gigs, delivering packages, and/or driving fares –they drive to warehouses, to clean houses, fixing repairs, build stuff, demo things, going to worksites and big box stores -all places that are typically far from each other and not accessible or possible by walking, bicycling or public transit. These high-mileage drivers rack up extraordinary costs and emissions. They’re driving long distances to reach job-rich, yet too expensive to live in communities, filled with high gig work demand, racking up miles each day, everyday because that’s what can pay the bills. It’s a vicious cycle of auto-dependence and its costing us all.
High Mileage High Costs Us All
Imagine clocking more than 40,000 or 50,000 miles a year, the hours alone in the vehicle, the impact to your back let alone the wear and tear on these vehicles that were not designed to be used this way. It’s tough to imagine for most of us. This harsh reality is the norm for up to 21 million high-mileage drivers, a significant number of whom live paycheck to paycheck and do all of the gig work around us. Studies estimate that this group is spending more than 10% of their annual income on gasoline alone not to mention all the other vehicle costs which have inflated to average over $1,200 a month. For an hourly worker, they’re literally caught in a driving to a gig and a gas station do-loop.
10% Fleet Shift to EVs Equals 55% Emission Reduction
If these drivers switched to the equivalent electric vehicles, most would stand to save around $4,000 annually. That’s a game changer for these caught-in-the-loop workers. Beyond personal savings, the environmental impact is also staggering. These high-mileage vehicles spew 3-4 times the average emissions, jeopardizing public health all around us. The environmental impact is immense. Studies estimate that switching this cohort to EVs could cut up to 243 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually, equal to 3.8% of all US emissions. This is like taking a whopping 76 million cars off the road (Almost a ⅓ of the US fleet in one sweep) !
Bridging the Divide: A Blueprint for Inclusive Electrification
But here’s the challenge: Despite their ideal home charging situation and significant financial and environmental benefits, the drivers face unique barriers to EV adoption. While many of these drivers live in houses, they’re mostly renting, they don’t have access the needed resources/permissions for home charging, or they live in developments and communities that lack charging infrastructure altogether. This creates a vicious cycle: those who could benefit most from the financial and environmental gains of EVs are often priced out or logistically locked out. Rural charging infrastructure is often limited, and the upfront cost of EVs can be daunting even for a low-income home owner.
This is a national wake up call. If we’re serious about electrification and want to use our tax payer dollar subsidies in the most efficient and effective manner, we need to prioritize. In the immediate term, we need to initiate and expand these targeted policy steps:
- Create targeted income-based financing: Focus government incentives to make EVs more affordable specifically through innovative financing and insurance options tailored for lower-income, high-mileage users. A new “cash for clunkers” program swaps out their gas guzzlers (that get permanently scrapped) for an equivalent EV and tied to a reliable charging option should be instituted nationwide and targeted to this cohort. Subsidies targeted to these users could lower all barriers to an EV.
- Partner with employers: Encourage businesses with high mileage employees to offer workplace charging solutions, finance and mechanisms.
- Invest in innovative and cost effective rural infrastructure: Create pop-up/mobile and moveable fast-charging stations along specific travel routes in underserved communities to combat charging barriers.
- Technology & Policy Innovation Must Come Together: Startups and governments need to work together to bridge these equity and policy gaps. Many innovative approaches for these groups are already available from pop-up fast charging, battery swapping, wireless charging and mobile charging solutions to address the challenges faced by drivers without options. These approaches are new utilize AI and other predictive analytics and don’t fit the usual policy requirements (i.e. “things the government can stick in the ground that they can cut a ribbon on”) and need to be made eligible for a piece of the billions of federal and state infrastructure dollars.
This issue plaguing high-mileage drivers is a symptom of a broader affordability crisis across the U.S. People struggle to afford housing near jobs, leading to longer commutes and greater dependence on expensive to operate and maintain vehicles. Used trucks and SUVs, often discarded by low-mileage dwellers who switch to electric vehicles, become the affordable option for this group, exacerbating the emissions that the previous owners unloaded and with the added costs burden cycle. Beyond mere subsidies, tackling this issue requires a multifaceted long-term systems approach:
- Addressing root causes: Why are people driving such long distances in the first place? Affordability issues are pushing individuals and families further away from employment and service hubs. Land use and zoning policies that lead to sprawl, limited public transportation, and car-dependent communities need a drastic overhaul. It’s an uphill slog but we need to rethink how this system of auto-dependence locks our public budget spending on ever increasing infrastructure costs and emissions we can’t afford.
- Education and employment opportunities: How can we foster access to education, skilling up and well-paying jobs closer to rural/suburban adjacent communities, mitigating the need for these extensive often hour long each way commutes? This is a state by state economic development issue, creating job centers is great but they need to have affordable housing within walking distance not driving distance.
- Community planning: How do we rapidly increase the development of compact, walkable and bike able communities with mixed-use developments, reducing reliance on personal vehicles? How do we encourage businesses to locate in these walkable and bike-able communities to create jobs that are close to where people live and live their life. We have old examples worldwide, we need to make more of them.
- E-cars, E-Vans and E-bikes for Urban Gig Workers: Electric Vehicles come in various forms, but are expensive no matter the subsidy. For the city bound drivers there are new options including e-cargo bikes for example that can reduce the transportation burden especially for those workers who live and do most of their gigs locally. Governments spend millions of EV subsidies for cars, they should offer the same for e-bicycles especially for gig workers.
Ultimately, the solutions lie beyond just electrifying these driver’s vehicles. We need to undue a lot of decades of car-dependent systems and polices, but they’re not going to happen anytime soon. If we’re to create a future where people can thrive in sustainable, accessible communities, with choices for transportation that go beyond the gas-guzzling SUV and pick-up truck then we need to do this in parallel.
Some cities are leading the charge, but to put it in context we have about 5 global auto makers who will manufacture over a billion EVs (cars, bikes, vans, buses and trucks,) over the next decade, and we have about 500,000 cities globally who need to make all these policy moves simultaneously. We have state and federal agencies working at cross purposes with cities. There needs to be more coordination among the three. Often times we hear we need more public-private partnerships and that’s true, but let’s start with a unified voice from governments. This requires rethinking land use, fostering local economic opportunities, and designing, retrofitting, infilling and building walkable, vibrant communities where distances shrink and travel options and economic opportunities expand.
As we shift gears towards electrification over this next decade, a wealth of opportunities unfolds beyond mere emissions reduction. We stand on the cusp of transforming our urban landscapes, redefining the local economy, and increasing options and opportunity for local entrepreneurs and better local jobs making it a sustainable, profitable, and empowering force for both individuals and the environment. By weaving together targeted EV policies, innovative community planning, and a commitment to economic and social justice, we can pave the way for a future where every mile driven, ridden, cycled or walked (or not driven at all), whether in a rural town or a bustling city, leads us closer to a healthier planet and a brighter future for all.
