Harvard Salata Institute

Harvard Voices on Climate Change: The Road Ahead for Electric Vehicles

Harvard’s final "Voices on Climate Change" session focused on electric‑vehicle (EV) charging as the critical bottleneck to broader U.S. adoption. Vice‑provost Jim Stock introduced two Harvard experts—Elaine Buckberg, senior fellow at the Salata Institute, and Harvard Business School professor Christian Caps—who presented research on consumer preferences, charging infrastructure, and policy scenarios. Buckberg highlighted that four of the top five reasons non‑EV buyers cite for not purchasing an EV are charging‑related, and that home‑charging covers about 75% of new‑vehicle owners, leaving public fast chargers essential for renters and multifamily residents. Her team’s model shows that reallocating just 15% of federal EV spending from vehicle subsidies to charger deployment could lift the 2030 EV sales share by roughly 20 percentage points and double carbon‑abatement outcomes. The analysis also quantified the impact of recent policy rollbacks, such as the One‑Big‑Beautiful‑Bill Act, which would shave 8.5 points off the projected 2030 EV share, and the loss of the California waiver, further reducing the share to the low‑30s. City‑level simulations revealed that fast chargers keep round‑trip travel time under 20 minutes, whereas Level‑2 chargers impose 30‑40‑minute trips, dramatically affecting renters in the top 25 U.S. cities. The findings suggest that fast‑charging infrastructure, especially in urban and highway corridors, is the most cost‑effective lever for accelerating EV adoption and meeting climate goals. Policymakers should prioritize charger subsidies over purchase incentives, and planners must address the needs of renters and multifamily dwellers to avoid a charging‑access gap that could stall the transition.