Will the Electric Vehicle Push Bring Black Americans Along on the Ride?

Americans love their cars more than practically anyone — only New Zealand has more cars per capita. So, when President Joe Biden announced in 2021 that he wanted to speed up the transition from gas-guzzling vehicles to electric ones, the push drove debate among state leaders, city planners, and everyday people alike.

Over the past two weeks, the debate has reached a peak that has serious implications for the upcoming election and the future of American transportation.

On March 16, touting unsubstantiated claims, former President Donald Trump threatened violence and a “bloodbath” if he wasn’t elected and China was allowed to sell “cheap” electric cars in the U.S.

In response, four days later, the Biden administration announced one of the most significant climate regulations in the nation’s history, which is expected to kick the EV transition into high gear.

Black neighborhoods are caught in the crossfires of the debate. Black communities disrupted by the automotive industry, highways, and transit pollution will seemingly benefit the most from the EV transition — and Biden has used this rhetoric to propel the conversation forward. But at the same time, Black workers and consumers have seemingly been left out of participating in the transition.

Currently, only about 2% of EV owners are Black.

So, for some, the transition has left them ecstatic about the potential public health benefits of lowering air pollution, and others afraid that the technological advancement will leave Black communities — and workers — in the dust.

“The issue with electric vehicles is this narrative that you need a vehicle to live,” said Renard Monczunski, a Detroit resident who is skeptical about the holistic benefits of individual transportation over mass transit options.

“This system isn’t working,” he said. “Cars are expensive, especially these electric vehicles, and if you can’t afford one it leaves you feeling like there is no place for you to be, especially when other transit isn’t being funded.”

Many Black folks, particularly those living in disaster-prone areas across the South where reliable evacuation pathways are necessary, are wary of the reliability of EVs.

“I’m worried about what happens during evacuations. EVs take much longer to refuel,” Jasmine McAdams said. “If people, likely lower-income folks, don’t have chargers at home, they’ll have to depend on public charging stations.”

This is an issue Capital B documented last year while mapping out an 850-mile drive across the South. The public charging situation also opens up drivers to uncomfortable situations, as reported by Bridge Detroit: “Charging stations are being installed in places Black motorists might not feel safe, replicating the conditions for a modern day Green Book.”

Read More: An Electric Car Journey Through the South

The larger EV debate centers around the idea of personal autonomy and just how accessible the vehicles currently are, particularly as their average price sits at $54,000 — $13,000 more than the average American’s annual income. Black households are more likely to buy used vehicles across all income brackets, which is partly attributed to long-standing discriminatory practices in automotive financing.

Sheryl E. Ponds, founder of Dai Technologies, one of the first Black woman-run EV adoption corporations, said the failure to bring Black communities into the EV fold is deliberate.

“I’m not even gonna mince words about it,” she said, “some [EVs] are significantly more expensive. And there’s some neighborhoods that are never going to be brought along in the transition.”

There have been attempts to more equitably place EV chargers, in addition to the federal government offering car buyers up to $7,500 off the purchase of a new EV and a similar tax credit of up to $4,000 for used electric vehicles. However, not all EVs are eligible to receive the tax credit. States have individual support options, too, which can be found through the U.S. Department of Energy’s state-level search tool.

In addition to the price tag, Ponds said, EVs aren’t genuinely being marketed to Black communities despite rhetoric from the federal government.

“If the marketers say that they are marketing to white males in suburbia, subconsciously, what goes off in our head is, ‘That’s not for me,’” Ponds said.

Billions of dollars in health benefits

Despite the inequitable adoption of EVs, in the first few years of Biden’s administration, sales have soared by more than 350%. Even if Black people don’t purchase EVs in large numbers, Black communities will still feel benefits.

This increasing shift could significantly reduce pollution from transportation, the country’s largest single source of emissions, which constantly settles in Black neighborhoods. Black people are exposed to 21% more pollution than the U.S. population average, despite producing 23% less pollution than the average.

And it’s a step toward combating climate change, which led to 2023 being the hottest year on record and to the floods that disproportionately impact Black folks.

The standards, which won’t be in effect until 2027, do not directly mandate the sales of electric vehicles, but if automakers fail to meet the pollution reductions they open themselves up to millions in fines.

Over time, the tailpipe regulation progressively restricts vehicle tailpipe emissions, leading to the expectation that within a decade, over half of the new cars sold will likely be zero-emissions vehicles, as this would be necessary for manufacturers to comply with the standards.

Read More: How Low-Emission Vehicles are Perpetuating ‘Systemic Environmental Racism’ in Detroit

The standards will help the U.S. avoid more than 7 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the next 30 years  — that is, if the automotive industry and Republican leaders don’t block it first.

If elected, Trump has all but guaranteed that his administration would roll back the Biden administration’s climate policies.

The EPA estimates that the regulation will yield nearly $100 billion in annual net benefits to society, with $13 billion attributed to yearly public health enhancements due to enhanced air quality. Additionally, it’s anticipated that the regulation will save the typical American driver roughly $6,000 in fuel and maintenance costs over the vehicle’s lifespan.

“How transportation policy has been meted out over the last century is that we’re left at the intersection of major highways and major roads,” said Ponds, whose company is based in Washington, D.C. “What does that mean? We end up with a lot of soot and dust and carbon emissions on our window sills in our home, and school and work absences because of asthma.”

Despite the comparative climate benefits, for some, the continued investment in individual transit options over mass transit options is exacerbating environmental justice concerns and fears that Black communities will continue to be gutted by more freeways and roads.

Even as Ponds works to widen EV adoption, she understands it won’t solve everything.

“Understanding the impact of the auto industry and emissions, there are things that we should be demanding, and one of them is good, clean mass transit because many of us live in urban centers where bus, light rail, and subway systems are our true best bet.”

The clean energy economy

The Biden administration has consistently emphasized that the drive for clean energy vehicles is not just about environmental sustainability, but also a promising avenue for revitalizing economic growth in Black communities. It offers those with and without a college education opportunities for “good-paying, union jobs.”

According to Stephen Benjamin, the director of the Office of Public Engagement for the Biden administration, two-thirds of new clean energy jobs are located in communities of color, including nearly 60,000 jobs in Black communities. However, this does not necessarily mean that people of color staff the jobs. There is no exact racial data around who is filling these jobs.

Still, Wally Adeyemo, deputy secretary of the Treasury, told Capital B in February that the data shows the equitable intentions behind Biden’s priorities.

“I think the data will show that places like South Carolina and Georgia are places where they’re benefiting from things like the Inflation Reduction Act, in large scale, and it’s not happening randomly in terms of these communities benefiting, but it’s because of the policy choices the president made,” Adeyemo said.

According to E2, a nonpartisan economic policy group, Georgia and South Carolina ranked 16th and 17th, respectively, for job growth related to electric vehicles. Across the nation, roughly $65 billion, or more than 50% of recent EV investments, will be located in areas where at least one congressional district has a Black population at or above the national average, according to the Center for American Progress.

“From our standpoint, this is important because it provides opportunities and avenues for people … to contribute to the transition that’s not only important to the overall economy, but matters a great deal for these communities because often these communities have been the ones who have suffered the most from the impact of climate change,” Adeyemo added.

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