IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i21p9591-d1781653.html

Commuting Time, Charging Infrastructure, and Electric Vehicle Adoption for Sustainable Transportation: A Case Study of Washington State

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Gifford

    (Department of Economics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA)

  • Edward B. Barbier

    (Department of Economics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA)

Abstract

Electric vehicles (EVs) are widely recognized as a critical component of strategies for a more sustainable transportation sector. However, adoption remains uneven across communities, in part due to the concern that limited charging availability and long commutes discourage EV use. This paper evaluates the following two hypotheses: (H1) census tracts with longer average commute durations exhibit lower levels of EV adoption, and (H2) greater availability of local charging infrastructure is associated with higher levels of adoption. Using a cross-sectional dataset of 2024 EV registrations in Washington State merged with census tract demographic characteristics, we estimate ordinary least squares models of per capita adoption. The results show that longer average commutes are negatively associated with adoption, while greater charger density is positively associated with adoption. Demographic factors such as income, education, and race also shape adoption patterns. While the cross-sectional design does not permit causal inference, the analysis highlights how behavioral constraints related to range anxiety and infrastructural provision jointly influence EV uptake, providing evidence to guide more equitable and effective EV policies for sustainable transportation.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Gifford & Edward B. Barbier, 2025. "Commuting Time, Charging Infrastructure, and Electric Vehicle Adoption for Sustainable Transportation: A Case Study of Washington State," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-13, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:21:p:9591-:d:1781653
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/21/9591/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/21/9591/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:21:p:9591-:d:1781653. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.