Time to put your Tesla to the test!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Do more electric cars on the road mean less pollution? FIRST, we need to know how much they’re driven!
Enter Lujin Zhao and team from George Washington University.
Researchers analyzed over twenty-four million used cars and S-U-V’s from online sales listings. Using the total mileage and the car’s age, they modeled the miles driven per year.
And? Electric cars are driven almost forty percent FEWER miles annually than gas powered cars. Electric S-U-Vs are also driven about a third less than their gas-powered counterparts! Even the most popular E-V’s – Teslas – are driven twenty-five percent less than conventional cars.
Current emissions models and policies assume electric and gas powered cars are driven equally. So emissions reductions from electric cars might not be as large as we think! Understanding how electric cars are driven can lead to more realistic and effective policy-making!
That’s an important point to drive home! Eh, Elon?
Reference: Zhao, L., Ottinger, E. R., Yip, A. H. C., & Helveston, J. P. (2023). Quantifying electric vehicle mileage in the United States. Joule. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2023.09.015