Abstract:

Growth in the electric vehicle market continues globally. Cumulative global electric vehicle sales surpassed 3 million units in 2017, with the United States now the third largest electric vehicle market after China and Europe. Governments at national, regional, and local levels continue to support the market to help achieve energy, climate change, local air quality, and industrial development goals. This white paper assesses the U.S. electric vehicle market and the actions driving it. The paper catalogues actions in place, identifies exemplary practices, and discerns links between various electric vehicle promotion actions and electric vehicle uptake. The analysis is primarily focused on the 50 most populous metropolitan areas, which represented about 79% of the 2017 U.S. electric vehicle market. The work statistically analyzes the links among various state and local policies, public and workplace charging infrastructure, consumer incentives, model availability, and the share of new vehicles that are plug-in electric. Primary conclusion from this work is that electric vehicle market growth requires many actions by many different players.