Abstract:

This briefing paper analyzes 2018 electric vehicle uptake in the United States and the policy factors that are driving it. The paper catalogues forty-three unique city, state, and utility electric vehicle promotion actions and their implementation across the 50 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas in 2018. The work identifies exemplary practices across 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. The areas with the most underlying electric vehicle support are, on average experiencing the greatest growth. This analysis leads to the following four observations: (1) States, cities, and utilities continue to develop comprehensive electric vehicle policy packages. (2) Greater diversity and availability of electric vehicle options is essential to continue growth.  (3) Consumer incentives remain important. (4) Electric vehicles and the charging infrastructure network grow in tandem. The more markets that act similarly to overcome the prevailing barriers, the quicker the global transition to a mainstream electric market will occur.