David Gohlke | Argonne National Laboratory

Social Media Handle: 

Presentation Description

Affordability is tied to the cost of operating the vehicle as well as the financial circumstances of the owner of the vehicle. Fuel costs are a function of vehicle efficiency, local prices, and driving behavior, and households with high fuel costs or low incomes have a high transportation cost burden (Zhou et al., TRR, 2021). Electric vehicles (EVs) offer the opportunity to lower cost burdens due to lower operating costs (Vega-Perkins et al., ERL, 2023); EVs are saving drivers nearly 10 cents per mile relative to gasoline (Wu et al., Argonne National Lab, 2024). To estimate the economic benefits of electric vehicles (EVs), we need to consider the expected market penetration of EVs in different localities along with the relative annual fuel cost savings to drivers in these locations. With this cost information, we can compare with household incomes to understand the cost burden of EV and conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles with high spatial and demographic resolution.
To date, the benefits of EV adoption are not evenly distributed across the United States. EVs are currently disproportionately registered in urban/suburban areas and wealthier areas, with the most urban zip codes having more than 4x the relative market penetration of EVs than the most rural quartile of zip codes. Part of this is due to the fact that EVs are newer than conventional gasoline ICE vehicles on average (3 years vs 12 years) and have historically not yet been available in all vehicle segments. As EVs become more mainstream, they will be accessible to a broader section of the population. By considering federal and state-level targets for vehicle electrification as well as historical trends in vehicle registrations, we estimate local uptake of EVs in coming years, paying special attention to the diffusion of used plug-in vehicles, to understand when the cost benefits of EVs will accrue to currently underserved communities.

Speaker Biography

David Gohlke is an Energy and Environmental Analyst at Argonne National Laboratory. His research interests span the lifecycle of vehicles, from vehicle manufacturing to sales through vehicle operations and end-of-life. Recent research includes the environmental impacts and characteristics of electric vehicles, vehicle manufacturing and supply chains, cost of ownership and household transportation affordability, energy impacts of connected and automated vehicles, and community accessibility to core opportunities and shared mobility.

Dave is a member of the Transportation Research Board standing committee on Transportation Energy. Previously, he held a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship at the Vehicle Technologies Office in the Department of Energy. He earned Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in physics from Ohio State University.

Co-presenters

Yan Zhou
Argonne National Laboratory

Xinyi Wu
Argonne National Laboratory

Presentation File