A new report conducted by Berkeley Economic Advising and Research indicates that electric vehicles (EVs) could be a major roadmap to economic gain for California, boosting the economy by billions and creating a minimum of more than 390,000 jobs over 10 years.
Dubbed Clean Transportation: An Economic Assessment of More Inclusive Vehicle Electrification in California, the report unequivocally shows gains for the state if it achieves the EV adoption rate consistent with its climate goals. It assesses the effects of the projected increase in EV use between 2030 and 2050. Even with a reasonably conservative baseline scenario that assumes no improvement to EV costs over the next decade, adoption will provide significant economic benefits, as well as reduce harmful pollution and improve public health.
“Consumer spending is the number one driver of the state economy. When people stop spending money at the pump, they will invest most of those dollars that otherwise would have gone to out-of-state oil companies on in-state goods and services – creating jobs,” said David Roland-Holst, BEAR Managing Director and Economics professor at UC Berkeley and lead author of the report.
If California were to hit its greenhouse gas reduction goals by 2030 and scale up EV adoption, it would create more than 390,000 jobs, with the potential to create more than 500,000 jobs if prices drop. Depending on how things play out, the gross state product (GDP) could increase by anywhere between $82 billion to $142 billion by 2030. Those figures also carry over to real, inflation-adjusted income, which is expected to increase substantially, ranging between $311 billion to $357 billion in 2030. This would, in turn, generate additional tax revenue and economic benefits that increase whole percentage points by 2050.
“As the state considers how best to ensure the adoption of electric vehicles, this research paints a clear picture of the tremendous economic and health benefits of a more extensive and equitable distribution of EVs,” said F. Noel Perry, the founder of Next 10, the think tank that commissioned the report. “If we achieve only a fraction of the benefits described in the study—Californians across the state and across income levels stand to gain significantly from accelerating the uptake of electric cars.”