How an obscure energy calculation could dramatically speed up America's EV future

The Biden administration proposed new CAFE standards last June. The proposal already called for significant improvements to average fuel economy, which will now become even more difficult for automakers to achieve.

Currently, one EV sale could offset around five gas-powered car sales on company ledgers, according to Burns. By 2030, when EV fuel economy ratings will be closer to gas-powered cars, he said the ratio will be more like 1:1.

EVs are widely considered an important tool for automakers to meet new fuel economy targets and reduce emissions from the transportation sector. But as EV adoption lags, some automakers have argued that the new Energy Department rule reduces their incentive to make long-term investments in zero-emission EVs and pushes them instead toward more intermediate approaches — like hybrids, or improved internal combustion engines.

Climate groups push for new math

Fully electric vehicles do not use gasoline. But they still use energy, and the electricity used to charge their batteries often comes from sources that emit pollution.

Congress and President Jimmy Carter, as part of efforts to conserve energy and rein in vehicle emissions, first directed the Department of Energy in 1980 to devise a calculation for “equivalent petroleum based fuel economy” of electric vehicles, the agency wrote in its finalized rule filing.

Such a calculation is helpful for regulators and consumers alike. “People don’t yet think in terms of Wh/mi (Watt hours per mile), and MPG is a familiar concept,” Burns said.

But the department had not updated its method of calculating MPG for EVs since 2000, when highly-polluting coal powered more of the U.S. electrical grid and EV adoption was virtually nonexistent.

In 2021, two environmental advocacy groups — the National Resource Defense Council and the Sierra Club — petitioned the government for new, more modern regulations.

“By overstating the miles per gallon equivalent of any EVs in automakers’ fleets, the prior calculation enabled automakers to continue to sell far more gas guzzlers,” the NRDC and Sierra Club said in a joint press release last month.

...continued

swipe to next page