Electric Vehicles and Equity: How EVs Work, Their Pros and Cons, and the Role They Can Play in Making Our Communities Stronger

Can electric vehicles play a role in advancing equity in underserved and historically marginalized communities? This report explores that question in four parts. The report begins with an overview of electric vehicle costs, performance characteristics, and environmental and health impacts, then considers possible pathways for electric vehicles to deliver tangible benefits to communities, including electric school buses and harnessing energy stored in electric vehicle batteries to power critical services in an emergency. It concludes with a discussion of some of the challenges limiting equitable adoption of electric vehicles and potential solutions to help overcome them.