California may have the most electric vehicles in the nation (803,816), but Vermont has the most DC fast chargers per 100,000 residents (36.5) and Ohio offers some of the highest incentives ($50,000 to $2 million) to help companies trade in their diesel 18-wheelers for electric trucks.

These facts and figures appear in the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy’s (ACEEE) first-ever State Transportation Electrification Scorecard, released Feb. 3. Like ACEEE’s annual state scorecard on energy efficiency, the new report rates states on their efforts to spur electric vehicle adoption. Predictably, California took the top spot, followed by New York and the District of Columbia, while West Virginia, Arkansas and Mississippi were at the bottom of the list.

Rounding out the top 10 were, in descending order, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington, Vermont, Colorado, Oregon and New Jersey. ACEEE found 27 states offer financial incentives for EVs, 36 states have lower electric rates for EV charging and 48 states are using federal funds to buy electric buses.

In other words, states are providing the momentum for transportation electrification, filling the void in federal leadership created by the last four years, said Bryan Howard, ACEEE’s state policy director and lead author of the report. Strong policy coupled with collaboration with utilities and the transportation sector, are moving the market, he said.

Beyond the overall ratings, ACEEE’s granular approach to scoring each state shows the wide spectrum of policies and programs that will be necessary to cut the millions of tons of carbon emissions produced each year by autos. The transportation sector now accounts for 28% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, edging out the electric power system — at 27% — as the nation’s top source of GHGs, according to figures from the EPA.

Electrifying transportation could cut emissions almost in half by 2050, according to the report, but the nearly 1.8 million EVs currently on the road represent only 2% of the U.S. vehicle market.

Although overall car sales stagnated in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, EV sales as a percentage of all car sales in California “are higher than they’ve ever been,” said Patty Monahan, a member of the California Energy Commission.

“We’re seeing this play out, not just in California, but globally,” Monahan said during an ACEEE webinar on the new report. “EV sales in the [European Union] are higher than they’ve ever been; China is a major market. This is an inevitable movement to electrify transportation. The question is how fast?”

California is setting the pace with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) recent executive order requiring all light-duty cars and trucks sold in the state to be zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) — either electric or hydrogen-fuel cell — by 2035. (See Calif. to Halt Gas-powered Auto Sales by 2035.)

State programs to promote EV sales are focused on lowering major barriers to EV adoption — what Monahan called “the three C’s” — cost, convenience and customer awareness.

For example, California offers rebates not only for new EVs, but also for used EVs, to support the second-sales market, which often serves as the entry point for low-income consumers, Monahan said. The state is also working with automakers, such as GM, to allow consumers to take advantage of the state’s tax credit for EVs at the point of sale, which is “particularly important for folks with the need to accrue that benefit immediately rather than carrying the cost,” she said.

Identifying the Gaps

The report and its exhaustive appendices provide a deep dive into state policy, with ACEEE’s 100-point scoring system accounting for each state’s individual policy and program measures. For example, separate incentives for light-duty electric cars and heavy-duty trucks are worth 4 points each, as are state EV programs targeting low-income or disadvantaged “environmental justice” communities.

The report also tracks which branches of state government are the prime movers in enacting and implementing EV-friendly policies — the governor, legislators or utility regulators. Not surprisingly, in the leading states, all three branches are significantly involved, and in California, New York and Massachusetts, they are equally influential.

The benchmarking provides a clear view of the most impactful policies as well as identifying the gaps where better and more innovative approaches are needed. Howard was surprised that only five states have updated their building codes to require new construction to be “EV-ready.”

“Specifically, with multifamily buildings, there are a lot of opportunities to ensure we’re getting access and benefits to those parties,” he said.

Decarbonizing the electric system was also called out as an essential corollary so that EVs are manufactured with and can charge up on clean power. Here the role of utilities comes to the fore, whether they are investing in EV charging infrastructure, decarbonizing their own power supplies or offering lower rates or managed charging programs for EVs.

Equity and Electric Trucks

The role of equity and the need for all states to step up their efforts in this area was another major takeaway from the webinar. New York’s aggressive EV programs — aimed at putting 850,000 ZEVs on the road by 2025 — include a requirement that 40% of all funds be spent in disadvantaged communities, said Zeryai Hagos, a deputy director at the New York Department of Public Service.

The state is launching an “$85 million prize competition to solicit ideas and implement them to reduce emissions in communities that are impacted by transportation emissions,” Hagos said, noting that community engagement will be a core requirement for any proposal.

In Colorado, equity means ensuring chargers are installed between population centers and in small and rural communities, said Shoshana Lew, executive director of the state’s Department of Transportation. Initiatives aimed at electrifying medium- and heavy-duty trucking are another priority.

“There’s a lot of heavy trucking in low-income communities,” she said, so the state wants to “double down on increasing the availability of clean trucking. We’re taking a sort of place-based approach about how we do emission reductions in some of those areas.

Doing it Right

Another gap includes the things ACEEE says it could not measure, in particular, initiatives addressing customer awareness. While acknowledging their importance, the report notes that reliable and measurable data were not available on such public education programs.

The report also highlights, but does not specifically score, interregional efforts such as the Transportation and Climate Initiative, an effort by Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states to reduce GHG emissions from the transportation sector. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and D.C. are working on a program that would require transportation fuel distributors to buy allowances to offset their emissions, with the money going to support low-carbon transportation. (See NE States, DC Sign MOU to Cut Transportation Pollution.)

ACEEE recommends states lagging on EV adoption begin with planning and setting goals for transportation electrification. Step 2 is collecting extensive data, not only on how many electric cars and trucks are being sold, but the demographics of who’s buying them and where chargers are being installed. This data should be regularly reported and publicly available to ensure policies and programs are having intended impacts, the report said.

The goal, Monahan said, is to provide a steady stream of incentives and other programs to create a virtuous cycle for EV adoption. “We do it right; consumers buying electric have much lower costs,” she said. “We do it right; that money gets recirculated back to our economy and continues to generate benefits for the state. We’re seeing this as an opportunity for keeping money in consumers’ pockets and the state and not exporting it to other countries.”