Op-Ed: What it will take to get electric cars into low-income communities? (via latimesopinion)
, 46% of Lyft rides start or end in low-income areas, which means there’s plenty of demand for ridesharing inside these communities to support an electric fleet if public charging stations exist.
Electrifying vehicle fleets is crucial in part because each vehicle sees much more use than a personal vehicle does.by Alan Jenn of UC Davis found that electrifying a single Uber or Lyft vehicle yields the environmental and emissions benefits of electrifying about three private vehicles. found that the charging network in L.A. will have to grow by a factor of three to six just to support electrified ridesharing fleets.With ridesharing drivers as anchor customers, we found that a robust, widespread charging network can quickly reach profitability for station operators. In our analysis, we focused on direct-current fast chargers — the stations where drivers can recharge on the go — which are especially important for fleets that need to minimize vehicle down-time.