Abstract:

This article emphasizes the importance of assessing distribution impacts of rebates and evaluates the allocation of such incentives across income groups and disadvantaged communities. The path towards light-duty vehicle electrification promises benefits like lower costs for drivers and reduced environmental externalities for all. Incentives such as electric vehicle rebates assist with alleviating high capital costs of alternative fuel cars. The authors uncover distributional effects of plug-in electric vehicle rebates, focusing on a program in the State of California. This study use economic attributes representative of populations of census tracts as well as data on rebates distributed to plug-in electric vehicle buyers through the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) from 2010 to 2018. CVRP is only one of a plethora of programs in California that are in place to promote PEVs ownership. This article presents a comprehensive equity analysis of the CVRP program.  Horizontal and vertical equity measures are evaluated, while measurement of spatial association characterizes spatial patterns of rebates allocation across the State. This study evaluates the distributional fairness of rebates allocation between income groups and disadvantaged communities. The authors find that rebates have been predominantly given to high income electric vehicle buyers. However, the share of rebates distributed to low-income groups and disadvantaged communities increased over time and after an income-cap policy was put into effect. Spatial analysis shows high spatial clustering effects and rebates concentration in major metropolitan regions. This study reveal neighborhood effects: communities with lower median income or disadvantaged receive higher rebate amounts when these are geographic neighbors to clusters characterized as high rebate amount receivers.