Are EVs cleaner than we think? Evaluating consequential greenhouse gas emissions from EV charging

Abstract While electrifying transportation eliminates tailpipe greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, electric vehicle (EV) adoption can create additional electricity sector emissions. To quantify this emissions impact, prior work typically employs short-run marginal emissions or average emissions rates calculated from historical data or power systems models that do not consider changes in installed capacity. In this work, we use an electricity system capacity expansion model to consider the full consequential GHG emissions impact from large-scale EV adoption in the western United States, accounting for induced changes in generation and storage capacity. We find that the metrics described above do not accurately reflect the true emissions impact of EV adoption–average emissions rates can either under - or over -estimate emission impacts, and short-run marginal emissions rates can significantly underestimate emission reductions, especially when charging timing is flexible. Our results also show that using short-run marginal emission rates as signals to coordinate EV charging could increase emissions relative to price-based charging signals, indicating the need for alternative control strategies to minimize consequential emissions.