This Is How You Make Electric Vehicles More Accessible to Renters

Americans have now purchased more than 800,000 electric vehicles, counting both plug-in hybrids and all-electric models. That may sound like a lot of EVs, and it is a big jump from the less than 5,000 that were on the road in 2010. But this is still less than 1 percent of all U.S. registered vehicles, despite the recent availability of longer-range, more affordable EV models like the Chevrolet Bolt.
Policymakers nonetheless see EVs as having great potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and other forms of pollution, and are supporting tax credits and other policies to encourage people to buy EVs. California, for example, aims to have 5 million of them on its roads by 2030.
But to meet ambitious goals like that, EVs will need to stop being a niche product and appeal to as many drivers as possible.
I am an energy economist working on transportation policy, and I’ve looked at newly available data to try to understand why people purchase EVs. It turns out that renting a home may be one of the biggest barriers.

A STRIKING DIFFERENCE

New federal data show that homeowners are more than three times more likely than renters to own an EV. And since 43 million U.S. households — 37 percent of all households — rent their homes, it is worth thinking hard about why this gap exists.

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Source: National Household Travel Survey

By analyzing the Transportation Department’s newly released 2017 National Household Travel Survey data, I found striking differences in EV ownership between homeowners and renters. In California, homeowners are three times more likely to own an EV than renters.
The gap is even wider for the rest of the U.S., where homeowners are six times more likely to own an EV than renters.

INCOME ISN’T EVERYTHING

You might be thinking that this gap is caused by income. It is true that EV ownership is higher for richer people, which is only natural since EVs cost more to buy than comparable gasoline-powered vehicles (although charging them is cheaper than filling a tank).
But I learned that homeowners are more likely than renters to own EVs, even when they have similar income levels. For example, among households earning between $75,000 and $100,000 per year, 1 in 130 homeowners owns an EV, compared to 1 in 370 renters.

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Source: National Household Travel Survey

PARKING AND CHARGING

The other big difference between homeowners and renters is having a place to park.
Most homeowners have a garage, a driveway or both. That makes charging extremely convenient for them because they can charge their vehicles at night.
It’s not so easy, however, for many renters. Renters are more likely to live in multi-unit buildings and parking spots may not be assigned, or there may not be any parking spots at all. The federal data doesn’t provide any information about parking availability, but this likely helps explain the disparity between homeowners and renter EV ownership rates.
There is also the related question of charging equipment.
For homeowners, it is relatively straightforward to invest in a 240-volt outlet, electric panel upgrades and other improvements to speed up charging. These investments can cost $1,000 or more, but are a good investment for a homeowner planning to stay put.
Making this investment is trickier for renters, however. They may not want to invest their own money in a property they don’t own and their landlords may be unwilling to let them do it in any case due to liability and other concerns.
This quandary is what economists call a landlord-tenant problem. In theory, a landlord could make investments like this, and then charge higher rent to recoup the cost. In practice, however, this can get complicated.
Even if the current tenant has an EV, the next tenant may not. And if future tenants don’t have EVs then they won’t need  or appreciate — having charging equipment handy. Several studies, including work by economist Erica Myers, show that renters tend not to value the energy-related investments their landlords make.

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An electric car charging station in a Miami parking garage.

PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR CHARGING

California policymakers are well aware of these challenges and that is a big reason why they are investing heavily in charging stations. The state is spending $2.5 billion to bring 250,000 charging stations statewide by 2025. Each of these stations will support several EVs, so this will make charging much easier for EV owners.
Much of this funding will cover the cost of building charging stations in communities with a lot of renters. The big utility Pacific Gas & Electric, for example, is making multifamily residences a high priority as it builds thousands of new charging stations across the state. As this charging infrastructure grows, the EV market is bound to expand as well.
I’m eager to see whether these investments will narrow the homeowner-renter gap.
While writing this article, I searched on the Zillow real estate website for rental listings in San Francisco and could find only four apartments that mentioned EV charging as an amenity.
The Conversation
This isn’t many compared to the more than 1,000 of the apartments on the market, but I have no doubt that there will be many more landlords giving their tenants a place to plug in their cars as more renters buy EVs in the near future.

Lucas Davis is a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. This article was originally published on The Conversation

Fuel Speed Ahead: With Their Latest Offering, Toyota Is Driving Sustainability

In the early ’90s, amid worries about dependence on foreign oil and global warming, the Japanese automaker Toyota mapped out initial plans for two revolutionary vehicles. One was the Prius, the car that arrived on American shores in 2000 and is largely responsible for popularizing hybrids here. (There are now more than 9 million hybrids on the road, globally.) A decade and a half later, the second vehicle is finally making its debut: the Mirai, which launched in California last year, is one of the first hydrogen fuel-cell cars available on the market. The zero-emissions vehicle has long been a goal for Geri Yoza, a 30-year Toyota employee who’s now the national manager of fuel-cell vehicles for the company’s American division. NationSwell spoke to her about the Mirai’s possibilities and Toyota’s next ambitious goal: to green the company by 2050.
First, can you walk me through how the Mirai works?
The vehicle is creating electricity through a chemical reaction in the fuel-cell stack. You fill up with hydrogen at a fueling station, and that combines with oxygen from the air to create electricity on-demand. Basically, you’re stripping off the electrons, and those provide power to the motor. Zero emissions come out of the tailpipe; the only byproduct is water vapor.
Why is this preferable to plugging in for a charge, as the Tesla Model S, Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Bolt all do?
All-battery electric vehicles typically have a shorter range than fuel-cell vehicles, and they often take several hours to recharge the battery. Batteries can be fairly heavy as well. Whereas, with a hydrogen fuel cell, vehicles have a range of 300 miles or more, and they only take about three to five minutes to fuel up.
The Mirai is currently priced at $57,500, a figure out of reach for most car-buyers. Over the short and long terms, how do you plan to make the car affordable?
Even when a vehicle has a high MSRP, there are incentives out there from both the federal government as well as states. For example, there’s an $8,000 federal tax credit if you purchase a fuel-cell vehicle like the Mirai. In California, there’s a $5,000 rebate that you receive if you’re a resident and you keep the vehicle in service for three years. They’re doing this because they understand that new technology is expensive — after your house, a vehicle is probably your second largest expense. In order to get the market going, sometimes you need these incentives.
Over the long term, if you look at the Prius as an example, we initially had a demographic of early adopters who were very highly educated and earning higher incomes. But as the vehicle was adopted by the mass market, you started to see broader appeal, with a greater range in education and income levels. As advanced-tech vehicles become more widespread, the production costs go down.
What do you tell skeptics who say there are too many obstacles, like a lack of fuel stations, for wide-scale use of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles?
There’s a challenge there, I will admit, in the infrastructure of fueling. We’re still at the beginning stages for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle adoption, but we’re making progress. We have 25 retail stations up in California, with more on the way, and Toyota’s working with Air Liquide in bringing a dozen stations to the Northeast next year. Building the fuel-station network will take time. We saw that with all-battery electric cars, it took a while to get the standards and codes together to educate municipalities on the permitting processes for plug-in charging stations. There’s room for both types of zero-emission vehicles, and consumers should be allowed to choose based on their needs and lifestyles.
[ph]
Where do we get all this hydrogen from?
Hydrogen fuel can be produced from almost anything, including raw materials like natural gas, water and biomass. For example, right now, the most common way is steam-reformed methane. You take natural gas and apply heat and steam to it. The methane in the natural gas reacts with the water in a chemical process that releases hydrogen. Another way is taking waste from water-treatment plants or landfills and creating hydrogen from biomass. And hydrogen can also be made from water via electrolysis.
Under the Zero Emissions Vehicle program, California requires automakers to sell a certain number of electric cars. How is that regulation affecting the way Toyota does business?
The way it works is that manufacturers get credit for selling all-battery electric cars, plug-in electric hybrids or fuel-cell vehicles. If some manufacturers generate more credits than they need, they can actually sell those to other manufacturers who might not be on the exact same trajectory of zero-emission vehicle product development, if necessary, in order to balance out their portfolio.
In terms of being at the forefront, the regulation has really helped move California toward its zero-emissions goals, but we’re not there yet. We have so many conventional vehicles on the road in the state’s metro areas that it’s really been important to continue reducing our tailpipe carbon-dioxide emissions and other tailpipe pollutants, since they have a negative impact from a public health and quality-of-life standpoint. Now, other states have adopted some of California’s zero-emissions-vehicle standards, and that’s important because it helps promote adoption of these vehicles nationwide.
One of the other big regulations came in 2012, when the Obama administration set a standard that all cars and light trucks must reach 55 miles per gallon by 2025. How do those fuel-economy rules affect whether more consumers go electric?
Across the company, Toyota has a portfolio approach. We don’t have just zero-emission vehicles or efficient hybrids like the Prius, which already has an EPA rating of over 50 mpg. We also have very fuel-efficient internal-combustion vehicles, and we continue to develop new technologies to reduce our emissions, as well as increase fuel economy. Sometimes, it can be a challenge with gasoline costs being as low as they are right now. The market is about 60 percent trucks and SUVs, and one of the reasons is because of the low cost of fuel.
We hear the word “sustainability” batted around, much more than in the past. What does that term mean to you, and why should it be a priority?
Sustainability, to me, goes beyond the vehicle, even beyond manufacturing. How can we benefit society as a good corporate citizen? Within the company, one of the challenges that Toyota has for 2050 is creating vehicles that are zero carbon emissions in manufacturing, putting in systems that promote recycling and optimizing the resources that we have. One example is reusing the hybrid vehicles’ batteries at the end of their life in other ways, like energy storage for solar. There’s a second life. So, we’re looking at those types of solutions.
Sustainability also goes beyond the corporate into the personal. Everybody has a role to play in the decisions that they make, including the cars they choose to drive. It’s important from the next generation’s standpoint. I really do want to leave the world in a better place, environmentally, than when I came into it.

Chicago Has Rolled Out the Country’s Very First All-Electric Garbage Truck

Now that the Windy City has rolled out the country’s first all-electric garbage truck, some Chicago residents will no longer have the loud clanging and screeching of an approaching trash truck as a reminder to take out the trash.
Built by Motiv Park Systems, not only do these these planet-friendly trucks (called Electric Refuse Vehicles or ERVs) run on a nearly silent motor, they also don’t emit any pollution comes from their tailpipes since they are 100 percent electric, Fast Company writes.
“Besides dramatically lower fuel and maintenance cost, value of the ERV goes beyond strict payback,” Motiv Founder and CEO Jim Castelaz says in a press release. “Each truck offsets over 55 barrels of petroleum and 23 tons of carbon dioxide each year. Plus, no one wants large, noisy truck engines idling next to their house at 6 am when they could have clean, and quieter ERV’s keeping the morning peace instead.”
MORE: Will Chicago Be the Next City to Outlaw Plastic Bags?
Gizmodo reports that if the trial run of the first ERV proves successful, Chicago will add up to 20 more of these trucks to its municipal trash fleet over the next five years at the cost of $13.4 million.
Even with the steep price tag, the city is poised to save a lot of money since it won’t be spending it on dirty diesel. We previously reported that Motiv Power Systems was the company responsible for rolling out California’s electric school buses (also a nationwide first), with each bus saving $10,000 each year in fuel and maintenance for the Kings Canyon unified school district.
As electric cars are becoming more and more popular, it’s clear that America is embracing a cleaner — and yes, quieter — alternative.
DON’T MISS: The Diesel-Chugging Yellow School Bus Finally Goes Green
 
 
 

Inside the Race to Build an Affordable Electric Vehicle

One of the main reasons why electric vehicles (EV) haven’t quite caught on in this country? Their cost. But back in July, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk announced news that lots of people were waiting to hear — that his car company is working on the first EV for the mainstream.
Called the Model 3, Musk claims that the car (targeted for release in 2016 and available to the general public in 2017) will cost $35,000 and can travel 200 miles on a single charge. The only other major EV that can reach 200-something miles is the Tesla Model S, which starts at a much more costly $70,000.
If the Model 3 succeeds, Tesla could dominate a very niche and profitable sector. But not if General Motors gets there first.
MORE: Tesla’s Brilliant — and Generous — Move to Help Save the Planet
Quartz recently detailed the tense and exciting battle between the two auto companies vying to make the first mass-market electric car. Here, some of the most interesting findings:
1. Tesla or GM could sell a LOT of electric cars. Like the highly popular and desirable BMW 3 series, there is a serious market for entry-level luxury cars. And now that consumers are more open to plug-ins, plus the trendiness of sustainable products, the sky’s the limit. Experts tell Quartz that the potential of an affordable 200-mile EV could really sway buyers to make the switch to electric, since that’s the point at which people no longer feel scared about their battery running out of juice in the middle of nowhere. Sales of electric cars — which currently stand at 2,000 to 3,000 vehicles a month — could swell to 15 to 20 times that amount once this technology proves successful, Quartz reports.
2. Tesla’s “gigafactory.” The reason why EVs are currently so expensive: batteries are costly. However, as technology improves, batteries will get cheaper. For example, the Tesla Model S lithium-ion battery currently costs about $15,000 per car, but Musk is building an enormous plant called the “gigafactory” that aims to double the global production of batteries — thus cutting expenses. Musk expects his new batteries will cost about $10,500 each.
3. GM is worried. Can a 106-year-old car company (riddled with controversy and recalls) actually compete against the technological whizzbangery of 10-year-old Tesla and its charismatic rockstar of a CEO? Steve Girsky, GM’s vice chairman, says that former GM CEO Dan Akerson was worried about Tesla and assigned a small team to study Musk’s EV’s and how it might threaten GM’s business.
4. GM, however, has a card up its sleeve. Tesla isn’t the only one working on a cheaper super battery. According to Quartz, Korean chemical company LG Chemical is working on their own battery that could be 200-mile ready by 2016. And while LG hasn’t said which automaker is getting the battery, since LG is GM’s supplier, we have a good guess as to which company will get it.
5. Still, the smart money is on Tesla. “We just haven’t seen any incumbent carmaker that has been able to make a compelling plug-in car in the way that Tesla has,” Navigant’s Sam Jaffe tells Quartz.
The drama between Tesla and GM is already exciting, but the best part about this EV battle? The planet is much better off for it. With so many environmentally friendly cars potentially flooding our roads, this would reduce the demand on fossil fuels and maybe, one day, even put a serious dent in the earth-damaging oil industry.
Competition spurs the best in innovation and as Tesla spokesperson Simon Sproule said after Musk surprisingly released his electric car patents to all in June, “The mission of the company is to accelerate the widespread adoption of electric cars. If Tesla acts as the catalyst for other manufacturers … that will have been achieved.”
Guess we only have to wait two years to find out which company comes out on top.
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Tesla’s Brilliant — and Generous — Move to Help Save the Planet

In a world where patents protect everything from Apple’s rounded corners to Amazon’s white backgrounds, Tesla Motors founder and CEO Elon Musk is doing something completely unprecedented: Releasing his electric car patents for all.
This means if other automakers want to make e-cars, they can use Tesla’s technology to do so.
We just told you about the tech visionary’s offer to share the technology behind his Superchargers — the fast-charging, plug-in stations for his company’s electric vehicles — with the competition.
MORE: Is Tesla’s New Idea the Foundation for an American E-Car Infrastructure?
And now, in a blog post titled “All Our Patent Are Belong To You” (shout-out to the Zero Wing nerds!), Musk wrote that Tesla’s wall of patents have literally been removed from the lobby of its Palo Alto headquarters “in the spirit of the open source movement, for the advancement of electric vehicle technology.”
He adds that his company will not “initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.”
Why would Musk do such a thing? In one word: Sustainability.
As the eco-conscious entrepreneur writes, there are 100 million new cars on the road per year, but it’s “impossible for Tesla to build electric cars fast enough to address the carbon crisis.”
You see, with all the hype about electric cars over the years (and a slow uptick of sales), it still hasn’t become mainstream to own one. We know plug-ins are much more environmentally friendly than typical gasoline-chugging, smog-emitting vehicles, but e-cars can be expensive and niche. (Tesla’s 2014 Model S costs about $70,000 but they’re working on a cheaper $30,000 model).
ALSO: Driving an E-Car: Not Good Just for the Planet’s Health, but Your Health, Too
Additionally, with the current production rate of e-cars being less than one percent of total vehicles made, car companies aren’t making nearly enough zero-emission vehicles for the market. Even the well-intentioned car buyer could argue, “Where do I even buy one of these things?”
So by freeing Tesla’s intellectual property, Musk is also freeing up the competition by allowing other car makers to improve and expand the e-car market.
“The mission of the company is to accelerate the widespread adoption of electric cars,” explained Tesla spokesperson Simon Sproule. “If Tesla acts as the catalyst for other manufacturers … that will have been achieved.”
DON’T MISS: What the Demise of Car Ownership Means for the Planet

Improve Your Bike Commute by Re-Inventing the Wheel

Bicycling is a great option for an outdoor fitness routine, but even if you’re not training for a long ride or racking up miles on uphill climbs, you can still take part in the practical benefits of riding a bike. A bike commute, for example, helps you reduce your carbon footprint, save on gas money, and turns your commute into a workout, rather than a stressful ride through traffic. Some cyclists, especially commuters, are looking for a little extra boost in their ride, and while a few bikes come with small motors, the FlyKly Smart Wheel is a unique bike addition that has already raised four times as much money as its original Kickstarter goal. It’s designed to fit on almost any bicycle, and the motor, which takes two or three hours to completely charge, kicks in as a rider starts pedaling and cuts out upon stopping. The high-tech side of this product shows up in a mobile app that allows cyclists to lock the motor or track the bike if it gets stolen; it also lets riders set a top speed. It’ll even monitor the wheel and provide alerts when it’s time for maintenance.

 

A Plan to Bring Lighter Cars to the Masses Without Using Oil

A vehicle’s weight is the single biggest driver in its energy use. According to the research non-profit Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), “In the U.S., oil fuels 94% of our transportation system; cars alone use about 8.8 million barrels of oil at a cost of $2 billion every day.” That’s why RMI is working with researchers and manufacturers on a national effort to transform the automotive supply chain. “Making cars lighter is the single most effective way to dramatically reduce their fuel consumption and accelerate the electrification of their powertrains, weaning autos off oil entirely,” according to RMI. To help support the non-profit and a clean energy future, head over to their website.