Equity, Emissions and the Inflation Reduction Act

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Woodley, Lucas, See, Chung Yi, Palmer, Daniel, Nunes, Ashley
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Woodley, Lucas
See, Chung Yi
Palmer, Daniel
Nunes, Ashley
author_facet Woodley, Lucas
See, Chung Yi
Palmer, Daniel
Nunes, Ashley
contents Preowned vehicles are disproportionally purchased by low-income households, a group that has long been unable to purchase electric vehicles. Yet, low-income households would disproportionally benefit from EV adoption given the operating costs savings offered by electrification. To help realize this benefit, provisions of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act offer preowned EV purchasing incentives. How effective might these efforts be. Leveraging data from the United States Census Bureau, the National Household Travel Survey, and the Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies Model, we address this question. Our findings are fourfold. First, we demonstrate that although low-income households are more likely to benefit from preowned EV purchasing incentives offered by IRA, up to 8.4 million low-income households may be ineligible owing to heterogeneity in vehicle procurement pathways. Second, we show that program ineligibility risks preventing up to 113.9 million tons in lifecycle emissions reduction benefits from being realized. Third, we find that procurement pathways depend on vehicle price. More expensive preowned vehicles are purchased directly from commercial dealers, while less expensive preowned vehicles are purchased from private sellers. These procurement pathways matter because qualification for IRA incentives necessitates purchasing solely from commercial dealers. Fourth, we demonstrate that while incentives motivating preowned vehicle purchases from commercial dealers may be effective if the vehicle is expensive, this effectiveness diminishes at higher price points. The implications of our findings on decarbonization efforts and energy policy are discussed.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_15054
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Equity, Emissions and the Inflation Reduction Act
Woodley, Lucas
See, Chung Yi
Palmer, Daniel
Nunes, Ashley
General Economics
Economics
Preowned vehicles are disproportionally purchased by low-income households, a group that has long been unable to purchase electric vehicles. Yet, low-income households would disproportionally benefit from EV adoption given the operating costs savings offered by electrification. To help realize this benefit, provisions of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act offer preowned EV purchasing incentives. How effective might these efforts be. Leveraging data from the United States Census Bureau, the National Household Travel Survey, and the Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies Model, we address this question. Our findings are fourfold. First, we demonstrate that although low-income households are more likely to benefit from preowned EV purchasing incentives offered by IRA, up to 8.4 million low-income households may be ineligible owing to heterogeneity in vehicle procurement pathways. Second, we show that program ineligibility risks preventing up to 113.9 million tons in lifecycle emissions reduction benefits from being realized. Third, we find that procurement pathways depend on vehicle price. More expensive preowned vehicles are purchased directly from commercial dealers, while less expensive preowned vehicles are purchased from private sellers. These procurement pathways matter because qualification for IRA incentives necessitates purchasing solely from commercial dealers. Fourth, we demonstrate that while incentives motivating preowned vehicle purchases from commercial dealers may be effective if the vehicle is expensive, this effectiveness diminishes at higher price points. The implications of our findings on decarbonization efforts and energy policy are discussed.
title Equity, Emissions and the Inflation Reduction Act
topic General Economics
Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.15054