Electric Vehicles Don’t Have To Be Elitist - They Can Erode Social Inequities

I am unapologetically a supporter of electric vehicles (EVs) and have thoroughly enjoyed mine. It has eradicated my gasoline bill, and my home power bill has not significantly changed thanks to my power company’s EV rate. I ride in the toll lanes in Georgia without fees and will claim my tax rebate this season. To be clear, I understand the environmental issues associated with batteries and have been pleasantly surprised with the amount of charging stations in the Southeast. The bipartisan infrastructure law that was recently passed will move the needle even further on charging access. All of this is a good thing for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Oddly, when I (or someone else) shares their enthusiasm for EVs, there is a strange and almost vitriolic reaction from some corners. A common narrative is that “everyone cannot afford them” or “stop being an elitist.” I even received one Tweet yesterday saying, “What about the single mothers?” That was interesting since as the son of a Black single mother, I know those struggles all too well. Let’s explore how EVs can actually help erode social inequities.

Before I even go there, it is important to provide some definitions of some terms that are often misunderstood - equality and inequity. The Milken Institue School of Public Health at The George Washington University has an outstanding discussion on its website. They write, “Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.” Equality means everyone is starting the race at the same line, but what if a racer has had a historical head start for decades?

With that out of the way, let’s talk about EVs and inequities. I will start with some breaking news. It is possible to strongly support EVs and understand that there are severe access issues to them. Often in society, I see people frame things as “either/or” when in reality it is “and.” For example, climate changes naturally “and” anthropogenic activities are amplifying or modifying the natural process. My Tweets about loving my EV and their contributions to reduce climate-harming carbon emissions is not by default a statement of elitism.

EVs are absolutely out of the price range for many people. There are well-documented “EV charging station deserts” in poor neighborhoods and communities of color. Charging access at multi-unit residential housing unites like apartments or condominiums is also a problem. These are limitations rooted in both inequality and inequity.

Ok, let’s frame the current situation using my own single mother living on a retirement income as an example. As of March 9th, the national average for gas was $4.25, according to Yahoo! finance. Her monthly budget like many others is going to experience an anomaly shock for the foreseeable future due to the Ukraine conflict and other supply-demand forces. From my lens, exorbitant gas prices and extreme volatility is harmful to a family that may be living on a fixed or steady income. Now imagine a world in which such families could have access to an EV and less volatile shocks to their family budget on a monthly basis. I am trying to convey that there is another side to the “EV is for the elite” argument.

Let’s keep it real for a moment. That reality is not currently there. According to Kelley Blue Book, the average transaction price for an EV is roughly $10,000 higher than the overall industry average. Until recently, the used EV car market had been lagging, but it is starting to grow. However, tax breaks and other incentives will be required to address the inequity issues associated with income gaps based on race, class, geographic region and so forth. The political football that is the “Build Back Better” bill included tax incentives for the purchase of new or used EVs, but it is bogged down in the political theater of Washington, D.C.

Other inequity issues will also need to be addressed. Will Englund wrote a very comprehensive piece in the Washington Post documenting how Hispanic and Black communities are being left behind due to the lack of charging stations within their communities (so-called “charging station deserts”). These same communities already deal with “food deserts.” I can imagine that poor, rural communities faces similar challenges.

The City of Pittsburgh has provided a potential best practice approach for others to follow. One of the six guiding principles in its 2070 Mobility Vision Plan is “Advance mobility justice to redress the infrastructure racism of the past.” The plan states that transportation is a human right. Specifically, the plan says, “This Plan provides strategies for increasing access, eliminating mobility insecurity, and reknitting communities fragmented and isolated by highways and rail. It provides an equity-driven lens for infrastructure investment and maintenance to bring all neighborhoods to a good state of repair.” To achieve its goal of a 50 percent reduction of transportation emissions by 2030 (80 percent overall by 2050), the plan calls for public charging stations (row and off-street parking), induction charging on public streets, and other strategies to remove barriers to charging.

Other best practices include the emergence of EV sharing programs and resource groups like EVHybridNoire, which seeks to shift narratives about EV mobility into undersserved communities. For example, EVHybridNoire has a wonderful EV Charging Road Map Tool on its website. In a previous Forbes piece, I asked Terry Travis of EVHybridNoire what some of the biggest myths are concerning underserved communities and EVs. He said, “While there are more expensive EVs available, some of our members have benefited from Electric Vehicles by purchasing the lower-priced EVs. We have members ranging from retirees who purchased $6K pre-owned EVs because being on a fixed income it worked for their budgets to high schoolers whose first vehicles are EVs.”

Vanderbilt University professor Jonathan Gilligan tweeted recently that “transition to electric vehicles can be a powerful force for social and environmental justice if we do it right.” I agree with him. When I asked Terry Travis what does success look like, he told me, “We would like to see the communities hit “worst and first” leading the conversation around clean and sustainable transportation, energy and environmental equity while simultaneously we have moved beyond mere consumerism and created workforce and economic opportunities for these burdened communities in the Auto 2.0 ecosystem.”

By the way, I didn’t even focus on the other way that EVs can eliminate inequities. Studies continue to show that communities of color, the elderly, children and the poor are disproportionately affected by climate change. A series of essays in Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman’s new book The Black Agenda documents this weather-climate gap. Any effort to clean our air and ramp back “new normal” weather extremes benefits such communities too.