Cleaner air with EVs measured

The focus of cleaner technologies like electric vehicles is usually on reducing greenhouse gases, which is, indeed, super important. But don’t forget that burning stuff for energy also creates plain old dirty, unhealthy air. So when enough people switch away from old-fashioned gas cars in an area, there should be a measurable improvement in air quality, right? The answer is yes, per recent research:

The study, just published in The Lancet Planetary Health and partly funded by the National Institutes of Health, adds rare real-world evidence to a claim that’s often taken for granted – that EVs don’t just cut carbon over time, they also improve local air quality right now.

They correlated California Dept. of Motor Vehicles EV registrations with satellite data showing nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution.

“We’re not even fully there in terms of electrifying, but our research shows that California’s transition to electric vehicles is already making measurable differences in the air we breathe,” said lead author Sandrah Eckel, PhD, an associate professor at the Keck School of Medicine. …They also saw the expected counterexample: neighborhoods that added more gas-powered vehicles experienced increases in pollution. The findings were then replicated using updated ground-level air monitoring data dating back to 2012.

This is why you, me, and everyone should switch to EVs, and why infrastructure like charging stations is worth investing in, and yet another way the Trump administration is undermining public health (by halting the Biden-era EV rebates).