Suggested Citation:
Burlig, Fiona, James Bushnell, David Rapson, Catherine Wolfram (2024)

Brief: Electric Vehicles May Be Using Less Electricity than Assumed by California Regulators and Utilities

The widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EV) is a centerpiece of California’s strategy to reach net-zero carbon emissions, but it is not fully known how and where EVs are being used, and how and where they are being charged. California is home to approximately half of the EVs in the United States, yet policymakers attempting to guide transportation electrification lack rigorous estimates of how much electricity EVs are actually using because the majority of EV charging occurs at home, where it is difficult to distinguish from other household uses recorded on the electricity meter.

This policy brief is drawn from the report “Estimating Electric Vehicle Electricity Use” available at www.ucits.org/research-project/2021-30.