EV Benefits
There's an EV to meet every driver’s cost, size, range and capability needs.
- Over 130 EV models are available today, and over 100 more are set to arrive by 2027. These models offer a variety of prices, capacities, and ranges, ensuring an EV to meet diverse driving needs.
- Electric drive is available in multiple configurations, including medium- and heavy-duty trucks, buses, vans, and other delivery vehicles, serving ever-broader segments of the transportation sector. Around 320,000 electric trucks were on the road globally in 2022. (IEA Global EV Outlook 2024)
- The average price of EVs are falling, with a 22.4 percent drop from 2022 to 2023 (KBB), and EV ranges have increased by 10% annually since 2018. Many models can travel more than 300 miles on a charge. (Consumer Reports)
- It is cheaper to refuel an electric sedan, SUV or truck in any state, compared to filling up a gasoline powered vehicle. (Energy Innovation Policy & Technology - EV Fill-Up Tool)
- The used car market is adding even more affordable options for consumers. There were about 400,000 used EVs in the U.S. market in 2023. (IEA Global EV Outlook 2024 )
EVs are the cleaner choice for drivers no matter where they live and drive.
- EVs are the cleaner choice, no matter where you charge your plug-in vehicle in the United States. 93 percent of the country lives where the average EV is better than the most efficient gasoline vehicle (57 mpg). (Union of Concerned Scientists)
- Over their lifetimes, EVs on U.S. roads today are projected to emit 60 to 68 percent less climate pollution than comparable ICE vehicles. (Argonne National Laboratory)
EV market expansion and technology development can catalyze U.S. jobs and economic growth.
- Private investment in the U.S. electric drive value chain, from companies around the world, has grown to $265 billion since 2021. These investments will add economic benefits and jobs at over 450 new and existing sites. (Atlas EV Hub)
- The sale of ICE vehicles peaked in 2017. Current trends indicate that EVs will “reach 45% of global passenger-vehicle sales by 2030 and 73% by 2040.” “The cumulative value of EV sales across all segments [worldwide] could reach $9 trillion dollars by 2030 and $63 trillion by 2050.” (BNEF)
- Employment supported by battery electric vehicles represents the fastest growth of any energy technology – almost 17 times faster than the increase in gasoline and diesel vehicle employment. (USEER)
- The electrified vehicle segment – hybrids, plug-in hybrids, battery EVs and fuel cell EVs – supported 373,605 American jobs according to the most recent United States Energy Employment Report (USEER).
- Critical segments in the EV ecosystem, including energy storage, grid technologies and modernization, supported 146,811 American jobs, while electricity transmission and distribution supported more than 703,000 jobs. (USEER)
EVs help build more livable communities.
- Electric vehicles benefit more than just their drivers. The electrification of transportation benefits all communities by reducing air and noise pollution where electric cars, transit vehicles, commercial trucks, shared mobility and school buses are in use.
- Air pollution accounts for one in five premature deaths, at a cost of $886 billion to society, and low-income communities are disproportionately affected by its effects. Increased electrification of the transportation sector is an essential and effective tool policymakers can use to address this public health crisis and reduce health care costs. (Harvard School of Public Health) (PNAS)
EVs are the path to energy security.
- The transportation sector accounted for about 27 percent of total U.S. energy consumption in 2022. Roughly 90 percent of that energy came from petroleum fuels. (EIA)
- Keeping the American economy chained to oil presents a vulnerability that can be eliminated by using domestic, abundant electricity to power the transportation sector. BNEF calculates that, worldwide, “EVs of all types are already displacing 1.7 million barrels per day of oil usage, equivalent to about 3% of total road fuel demand.”
- The top five sources of U.S. gross petroleum imports in 2023 were Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Brazil.
- “The rapid uptake of EVs of all types – cars, vans, trucks, buses and two/three-wheelers – will avoid 6 million barrels per day (mb/d) of oil demand” by 2030. (IEA Global EV Outlook)
The grid has the capacity to support EVs.
- “Based on historical growth rates, sufficient energy generation and generation capacity is expected to be available to support a growing EV fleet as it evolves over time, even with high EV market growth.” (U.S. Dept. of Energy) The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found sufficient spare capacity in the nation’s electric grid to power nearly 200 million light-duty passenger vehicles with smart charging and demand management.
- The grid is evolving and modernizing with new technologies to optimize the advantages that electric vehicles provide it.
- EVs are an important tool that can optimize use of the current grid assets by taking advantage of off-peak electricity – idle baseload generation capacity – that would otherwise be wasted. With demand management and battery storage, electric transportation makes the grid more efficient and resilient and maximizes renewable energy's utility. (EIA)
- At the end of their useful lives in vehicles, lithium-ion batteries still have a 70 to 80 percent charge capacity, which can be used in non-automotive applications, including energy storage, which makes the grid more resilient and efficient. (Union of Concerned Scientists)
EVs are transforming commercial fleets, reducing costs and emissions.
- The MDHD segment was responsible for 23 percent of GHG in 2022. Heavy-duty vehicles are projected to account for the fastest increases in energy demand among all transportation modes from 2010 to 2040. (EPA)
- Electrification in the medium- and heavy-duty (MDHD) segment will reduce energy, operating, and emissions costs. “Electric transit buses can already cost less on a lifetime basis than diesel buses without subsidies,” and pick-up trucks have the greatest potential for fuel cost savings when switching to all-electric vehicles, followed by vans and SUVs. (Atlas EV Hub)
- To date, 177 fleets have deployed about 6,000 electric MDHD freight vehicles across the U.S., with 182,000 additional on order. (Atlas EV Hub - Electric Freight Dashboard)
- Electric buses provide zero-emission options for transit. IEA notes that “City buses, in particular, have strong potential for electrification thanks to their relatively fixed driving patterns and lower daily distances and have spearheaded growth in electric bus sales.” There were 6,147 full-size transit zero-emission buses deployed across the U.S. by September 2023, and now over 12,000 electric school buses deployed nationwide. (CALSTART)