High-Mileage Drivers Aren't Buying EVs And That's A Problem

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While a transition towards electric vehicles has steadily taken hold to combat climate change, EVs aren’t filling up city streets and highways in proportional numbers to sales. Scientific American found that gas vehicles were driven 62.4 percent more than EVs between 2016 and 2022, based on odometer readings. The environmental impact of EVs could be overestimated if electric cars aren’t being relied on by high-mileage drivers or used as daily drivers for multi-vehicle households.

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The notion that most people are buying electric vehicles and keeping a gas-powered car for long-distance trips might as well be wishful thinking. While that is true, the magazine’s own study found that the overall mileage gap between the two powertrain types is so severe that these households can’t offset the deficit on their own.

The solution seems simple on the surface: get more EVs in the hands of people who drive a lot. The only problem is that a new electric vehicle is expensive. It will likely set someone back at least $48,000, around $5,000 more than a compared model with an internal combustion engine. Scientific American states that used EVs could shift this situation:

“Used car buyers, however, could turn this trend around. Right now the U.S. has a large fleet of lightly used EVs available for sale (and at rather competitive prices). Higher-mileage drivers could benefit greatly from lower operating and maintenance costs while also benefiting the environment if they considered adopting a used EV—and especially if, in doing so, they took an older, higher-polluting vehicle off the road.”

The impact of the used EV market can’t be understated. Replacing the worst-emitting vehicles from the road with zero-emissions cars would be vastly more effective than someone buying an EV as a second car alongside a relatively new ICE vehicle.