Electric vehicles (EVs) 1 can dramatically reduce local air pollution and carbon emissions. But relatively little analysis has been done on the broader potential economic benefits as the technology matures and costs decline. In particular, EVs may benefit lowincome households for whom car ownership poses a serious financial burden (The Greenlining Institute, 2020). As governments seek to integrate decarbonization policy with environmental justice goals, it will be critical to ensure equal access to clean technology. 2 However, there are still relatively few electric vehicle offerings, many of them marketed as luxury vehicles, such that EV sales have typically gone to relatively affluent households. There are critical unanswered questions about when EVs will provide benefits for lower-income households, and how the magnitude of these benefits will vary between different groups.

The current transportation system dominated by private vehicles contributes to social and economic inequality. Transportation is the second-largest component of household expenditures, after housing costs, and the dominance of fixed costs makes vehicle ownership especially burdensome for low-income households. While the majority of US households own at least two vehicles, over 10 million households do not have access to a car. The vast majority of these households do not have a vehicle due to physical or economic constraints (Brown, 2017), including over 25% of households earning less than $25,000 per year (US Census Bureau, 2020). Over half of families living in poverty do