Abstract

In Massachusetts and beyond, ambitious long-term initiatives seek to curtail increases in carbon pollution that contribute to climate change and carry detrimental impacts to population health and safety. Widespread electrification of the passenger vehicle fleet is celebrated as a fundamental strategy for achieving substantial long-term transportation-related greenhouse gas reductions. Unfortunately, in spite of this understood need, the number of EVs on our roadways remains relatively insignificant and the evidence base remains limited in its ability to inform decisionmakers as to what set of factors related to an individual, their surrounding context, or the new technology itself will contribute most to increasing passenger EV adoption. This study utilizes a unique data set enumerating passenger vehicle purchases and utilization in Massachusetts from 2008 to 2016 to (i) describe geographic and temporal patterns of EV adoption and (ii) identify the environmental factors that have predicted the purchase and utilization of EVs by these early adopters. Our study finds that early EV adoption in Massachusetts has largely been an urban phenomenon displaying a gradual and incremental increase in the consumer market share. At a neighborhood scale, early EV adoption in Massachusetts has been limited primarily to higher-income households residing in single-family homes. However, if policy actions follow, the significant association of public charging stations with EV adoption and other informative study findings can carry the potential to direct investments and incentives to ensure the Commonwealth’s lofty legislatively-mandated targets are met in coming years.

摘要

在马萨诸塞州及其他地区，雄心勃勃的长期计划旨在减少导致气候变化并对人口健康和安全造成不利影响的碳污染增加。乘用车车队的广泛电气化被认为是实现与运输相关的大量长期温室气体减排的基本战略。不幸的是，尽管有这种理解需求，但我们道路上的电动汽车数量仍然相对微不足道，而且证据基础仍然有限，无法告知决策者哪些因素与个人、他们的周围环境或新技术相关其本身将对增加乘用电动汽车的采用做出最大贡献。本研究使用了一个独特的数据集，列举了 2008 年至 2016 年马萨诸塞州乘用车的购买和使用情况，以 (i) 描述电动汽车采用的地理和时间模式，以及 (ii) 确定预测购买和使用电动汽车的环境因素。早期采用者。我们的研究发现，马萨诸塞州早期采用电动汽车在很大程度上是一种城市现象，显示出消费者市场份额的逐渐增加。在社区范围内，马萨诸塞州早期的电动汽车采用主要限于居住在单户住宅中的高收入家庭。然而，如果政策行动随之而来，