BY Timothy Papandreou

Electric Vehicles are becoming mainstream technology and governments and manufacturers (despite the recent hit pieces and headlines to the contrary) are fully on board.

The EV race is picking up at a rapid pace, with new models, new incentives, and a host of new battery technology and with that comes the usual mix of geopolitics and price wars. It’s an electric rush as drivers swap their gasoline cars for an EV signaling, we’re heading toward the promise of a clean, green future.

A recent study identifies a unique segment of the U.S population, known as “superusers” - those who drive an extraordinary amount of miles each year in mostly second hand gasoline SUVs and pickup trucks. They’re just 10% of American drivers yet they consume a staggering 35% of all gasoline. To put it in context that’s more than the total gasoline consumption of China! These figures are as staggering as they are alarming for a host of reasons. Who are these people and why on earth are they driving so much?

Before you rush to judgment and point fingers, consider the long shadow cast by misguided land use, educational and economic decisions that got us here, and the resulting increasing distance between homes, jobs, care, and daily necessities of life. Decades of car-centric planning, increasing costs of living, economic barriers, and soaring housing costs have created the conditions that these individuals find themselves in-a cycle of long commutes and dependence on vehicles that are increasingly expensive to operate and maintain. This group now shoulders the highest economic, social, and environmental costs of their high-mileage burden compared to the general population.

Forget well-off, early adopter, work-from-home suburbanites with their subsidized EVs, solar panels, and battery walls. This is not about them. They’re also not the central city dwellers like me who live in compact communities and don’t need cars because of the plethora of transportation choices like walking, bicycles, public transit, and ride-hailing.

These superusers live in more affordable adjacent towns or on the suburban/rural fringe. Their typical work includes a mix of hustling gigs–they drive to warehouses, clean houses, do repairs, build stuff, demolish things, haul stuff away, go to worksites and big box stores - all places that are typically far from each other and not accessible or possible by walking, bicycling or public transit. These high-mileage drivers rack up extraordinary costs and emissions. They drive long distances to reach job-rich, expensive communities they can’t afford to live in. It’s a vicious cycle of auto-dependence and it’s costing us all.

High Mileage Costs Us More Than Dollars

Imagine clocking more than 40,000 or 50,000 miles a year, the hours in the seat, the impact to your back, let alone the wear and tear on these vehicles that were not designed to be used this way. This harsh reality is the norm for up to 21 million high-mileage drivers. Studies estimate that this group is spending more than 10% of their annual income on gasoline alone, not to mention all the other vehicle costs which have inflated recently to an average of over $1,200 a month.

10% Fleet Shift to EVs Equals 55% Emission Reduction

If these drivers switched to the equivalent electric vehicles, most would stand to save around $4,000 annually. That’s a game changer for these caught-in-the-loop workers. Beyond personal savings, the environmental impact is also staggering. These older high-mileage vehicles spew three to four times the average emissions, jeopardizing public health all around us. The environmental impact is immense. Studies estimate that switching this cohort to EVs could cut up to 243 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually, equal to 3.8% of all US emissions. This is like taking a whopping 76 million cars off the road (Almost one-third of the US fleet in one sweep).

Bridging The Divide: A Blueprint for Inclusive Electrification

But here's the challenge: Despite their long daily drives being well within the range of the current EV options, most superusers face unique barriers to EV adoption. Mostly renting their homes and don’t have access to the needed resources/permissions for home charging, or they live in developments and communities that lack charging infrastructure altogether. This creates a vicious cycle: those who could benefit most from the financial and environmental gains of EVs are often priced out or logistically locked out. Rural charging infrastructure is often limited, and the upfront cost of EVs can be daunting even for a low-income homeowner.

This is a national wake up call. If we’re serious about electrification and want to use our taxpayer dollar subsidies in the most efficient and effective manner, we need to prioritize. In the immediate term, we need to initiate and expand these targeted policy steps:

• Create Targeted Income-Based Financing: Focus government incentives to make EVs more affordable specifically through innovative financing and insurance options tailored for lower-income, high-mileage users. A new “cash for clunkers” program could swap out gas guzzlers (that get permanently scrapped) for an equivalent EV and it could be tied to a reliable charging option instituted nationwide and targeted to this cohort. Subsidies targeted to these users could lower all barriers to an EV including access to charging.
• Partner with Employers: Encourage businesses with high mileage employees to offer workplace charging solutions, finance and mechanisms that get workers EVs or options that get them closer to their jobs and offer more affordable options to and from work.
• Invest in Innovative and Cost-Effective Rural Infrastructure: Create pop-up/mobile and moveable fast-charging stations along specific travel routes in underserved communities to combat charging barriers.
• Bring Together Technology & Policy Innovation: Startups and governments need to work together to bridge these equity and policy gaps. Many innovative approaches for these groups are already available from pop-up fast charging, battery swapping, wireless charging, and mobile charging solutions to address the challenges faced by drivers without options. These approaches utilize AI and other predictive analytics and don’t fit the usual policy requirements (i.e. things the government can stick in the ground and put a ribbon on) and need to be made eligible for a piece of the billions of federal and state infrastructure dollars.

Used trucks and SUVs, often discarded by low-mileage dwellers who switch to electric vehicles, become the affordable option for superusers. Beyond mere subsidies, tackling this issue requires a multifaceted long-term systems approach:

• Addressing Root Causes: Why are people driving such long distances in the first place? Affordability issues are pushing individuals and families further away from employment and service hubs. Land use and zoning policies that lead to sprawl, limited public transportation, and car-dependent communities need a drastic overhaul. It’s an uphill slog but we need to rethink how this system of auto-dependence locks our public budget spending on ever increasing infrastructure costs and emissions we simply can’t afford.
• Education and Employment Opportunities: How can we foster access to education, upskilling and well-paying jobs closer to rural/suburban adjacent communities, mitigating the need for long commutes? This is a state-by-state economic development issue, creating job centers and clusters is great but they need to have affordable housing within walking distance not driving-only distance.
• Community Planning: How do we rapidly increase the development of compact, walkable and bike able communities with mixed-use developments, reducing reliance on personal vehicles? How do we encourage businesses to locate in these communities and create jobs there? We have old city examples worldwide, but the ones in the US are out of reach for most people. We need to make more of them and that are affordable for workers.
• E-Cars, E-Vans, and E-Bikes for Urban Gig Workers: Electric Vehicles come in various forms but are expensive no matter what the subsidy. For the city-bound drivers there are new options including e-cargo bikes for example that can reduce the transportation burden, especially for those workers who live and do most of their gigs locally. Governments spend millions of EV subsidies for cars, they should offer the same for e-bicycles especially for gig workers.