In Short : To ensure an equitable transition to electric mobility, several factors need consideration. First, it’s crucial to address the affordability barrier. Making electric vehicles more economically accessible to all residents, regardless of their income level, can be achieved through financial incentives, subsidies, and affordable financing options.
In Detail : Low-income and non-white Angelenos are critical to L.A.’s transition to clean energy, yet the city is failing to invest adequately in bringing electric vehicle chargers, rooftop solar programs and energy efficiency improvements to their communities, a new report says.
The LA100 Equity Strategies report, released by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, UCLA and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, offers a detailed look at inequities underlying L.A.’s clean energy investments, as well as recommendations to address them. The report builds on a major 2021 study showing that L.A. can reach 100% clean energy by 2035.
Between 1999 and 2022, only 23% of electric vehicle investments, 38% of solar installation projects and 46% of residential energy efficiency incentives from the DWP went to disadvantaged communities, the report found. Those communities are mostly located in South L.A., East L.A., the San Fernando Valley and the Harbor area — places that also bear disproportionate impacts of rising temperatures and worsening climate change.
“The City of Los Angeles — where more than a half-million people live in poverty and most households are renters — faces a particular challenge in reaching 100% clean energy if it cannot provide affordable and accessible solutions for all residents,” the report says. Achieving 100% clean energy will require “bringing everyone along.”
City officials lauded the assessment as a road map for a more equitable transition, with DWP’s general manager Martin Adams calling it “the guiding document for how we’ll go about our business moving forward to make sure that we deliver for everyone in Los Angeles.”
Part of those plans includes the installation of at least 5,000 new electric vehicle fast-charging stations in underserved communities over the next five years. That will help get more charging infrastructure to renters, apartment-dwellers and people in multifamily homes, officials said.
“Affording an EV is one thing — being able to charge it is quite another,” said Cynthia McClain-Hill, president of Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners. She added that investing in charging infrastructure “closes the loop many of our residents need to be full participants in our city’s clean energy future.”
The DWP is also increasing its rebate for the purchase of used EVs from $2,500 to $4,000, for customers enrolled in discounted rate programs.