We provide the first at-scale estimate of electric vehicle (EV) home charging. Previous estimates are either based on surveys that reach conflicting conclusions, or are extrapolated from a small, unrepresentative sample of households with dedicated EV meters. We combine billions of hourly electricity meter measurements with address-level EV registration records from California households. The average EV increases overall household load by 2.9 kilowatt-hours per day, less than half the amount assumed by state regulators. Our results imply that EVs travel 5,300 miles per year, under half of the US fleet average. This raises questions about transportation electrification for climate policy.

We examine the private and public economics of electric vehicles (EVs) and discuss when market forces will produce the optimal path of EV adoption. Privately, consumer cost savings from EVs vary. Some experience net benefits from choosing gasoline cars, even after accounting for EV subsidies. Publicly, we survey the literature documenting the external costs and benefits of EVs and highlight several themes for optimal policy design including, 1) promoting regional variation in EV policies that align private incentives with social benefits, 2) pursuing a time-path of policies that reflect changing marginal benefits, and 3) rationalizing electricity and gasoline prices to reflect their social marginal cost. On the extensive margin, purchase incentives should ramp-down as learning-by-doing and network externalities (to the extent that they exist) diminish; on the intensive margin, gasoline should become relatively more expensive over time than electricity (per mile traveled) to reflect cleaner marginal emissions from electricity generation.

The Inflation Reduction Act works to expand the tax credit for electric passenger vehicle purchases. However, some of its key clauses are likely to make it harder to take advantage of the credit for at least a few years.

CBO report on budgetary effects of H.R. 5376 (Inflation Reduction Act)

Could you please compare US subsidies for coal and fossil fuels to US subsidies for renewables, annually over the last 10 years? The answer might seem cut and dried, but it’s not as simple as you might think.

Beginning in FY 2016, tax expenditures rose rapidly and leveled off, but direct federal support remained steady until Congress recently enacted temporary provisions
During FY 2016–22, most federal subsidies were for renewable energy producers (primarily biofuels, wind, and solar), low-income households, and energy-efficiency improvements.
During FY 2016–22, provisions in the tax code were the largest source of federal financial support.

2022 update: According to a recent IMF report, the burning of coal, oil, and gas was subsidized by $5.9 trillion in 2020. This new way of calculating the proper pricing of pollution takes into account the health costs of air pollution and contributions to the impacts of global warming.

A 2017 study by the NHTSA determined that EV batteries pose similar or lower fire risk than internal combustion engines, stating "Regarding the risk of electrochemical failure, the report concludes that the propensity and severity of fires and explosions from the accidental ignition of flammable electrolytic solvents used in Li-ion battery systems are anticipated to be somewhat comparable to or perhaps slightly less than those for gasoline or diesel vehicular fuels. The overall consequences for Li-ion batteries are expected to be less because of the much smaller amounts of flammable solvent released and burning in a catastrophic failure situation."

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