Incentives for electric vehicles are typically focused on broad adoption but targeting policies to focus on high travel intensity is a logical extension of maximizing electrification of the transportation sector. To this end, the coupling of electric vehicles and new mobility services has the potential to increase the benefits of electrification due to the increased miles traveled and higher passenger occupancy on average of new mobility fleets. This project seeks to examine the emissions benefits and economic viability of promoting electric vehicle use in new mobility service fleets through either new car purchases or rental programs. The project intends to leverage novel datasets from Lyft and EVGo to conduct the analysis. Lastly, several policy recommendations promoting the adoption of electric vehicles in new mobility fleets will be produced. These policy recommendations are focused on understanding the differences and mechanisms required to incentivize adoption by targeting automakers, new mobility fleet companies, and/or drivers of the services.
Implementation of Research Outputs
This research has played a key role in informing California’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure planning. Under California AB 2127, the California Energy Commission is required to publish a biennial report on the charging needs of five million zero emission vehicles by 2030. In September 2020, Governor Newsom issued Executive Order N-79-20, which directed the Energy Commission to update this assessment to support expanded ZEV adoption targets. The Energy Commission’s January 2021 assessment included multiple citations of this work in support of the analysis.