Electrifying vehicles used by transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft can significantly reduce emissions and improve public health outcomes, because drivers for these services travel many more miles than average drivers. Electrification can also save money for the drivers themselves. Electric vehicles are cheaper to power and require less maintenance than internal combustion engine vehicles, and transportation network company (TNC) drivers are generally responsible for their own vehicles’ fuel and maintenance costs.

In recognition of EVs’ social and environmental benefits, an increasing number of stakeholders are considering how they can help make EVs accessible to TNC drivers. Chief among their concerns is charging infrastructure: drivers are only going to purchase or lease an EV if they can reliably and conveniently charge it.

As utilities, city planners, fleet owners, EV service providers, and others develop their charging infrastructure strategies, they need to know when and how TNC drivers charge. That’s why RMI collaborated with PacifiCorp, Utah State University, FlexCharging, Forth Mobility, and other partners on the WestSmartEV@Scale project, funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE), to analyze driving data collected from a sample of electric TNC (e-TNC) drivers of EVs in Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City; Las Vegas; and Phoenix.

Below, we outline what we found, the challenges limiting the build-out of charging infrastructure, and what stakeholders can do to address these challenges.

Where e-TNC Drivers Charge

More than 90 percent of rideshare drivers using EVs charged them at home, whether at an apartment, a condominium, or a single-family home. This finding indicates that these drivers have consistent access to home charging and therefore do not rely on public charging.

How e-TNC Drivers Use Public Chargers

We found that when e-TNC drivers did use public chargers, they tended to use them for modest periods of time: more than 65 percent of sessions were shorter than an hour; 35 percent lasted fewer than 15 minutes.

Even though 80 percent of all public charging sessions started with the battery at less than 60 percent state of charge, drivers rarely charged their EVs fully, adding an average of 24 kWh during their sessions (most electric cars have a battery capacity between 50 and 100 kWh).

These short charging sessions, coupled with the widespread practice of partial charging, suggests that installing direct current fast charging (DCFC) would benefit future rideshare drivers.

e-TNC Drivers Often Make Long Stops in Public Without Charging at All

While the DOE’s Alternative Fuels Data Center shows that all the cities surveyed have public Level 2 and DCFC chargers, our analysis found that, generally speaking, drivers didn’t fully leverage them. In fact, drivers often made long stops in public without charging at all. Furthermore, these stops were often longer than the stops they made to use public chargers. Interestingly, drivers tended to make these stops when their batteries were substantially drained.

The map above highlights areas without chargers where drivers spent lengthier periods of time, such as shopping centers, grocery stores, and libraries. While some of these locations are near DCFC chargers, many drivers don’t use them, even though a significant number have a charge of less than 60 percent, perhaps because they prefer to wait to charge at home.

Today’s charging infrastructure may adequately serve today’s drivers, but to meaningfully expand TNC electrification, stakeholders should prioritize installing new chargers in locations where drivers spend extended periods of time but don’t charge, as they reveal existing gaps in the public DCFC network.

Expanding e-TNC Charging Infrastructure Can Accelerate EV Adoption Among Marginalized Populations

People are less likely to purchase or lease an EV if they can’t conveniently charge it. By expanding e-TNC drivers’ access to public charging, stakeholders can simultaneously accelerate EV adoption among populations with little to no access to home charging, many of whom earn low incomes.

These communities can greatly benefit from EVs’ considerably lower “fuel” and maintenance costs. Lyft has conducted research into the expenses rideshare drivers incur while driving for the platform. The four main marginal cost categories were fuel, maintenance and repair, mileage depreciation, and extra cleaning associated with providing rides. Lyft estimated that the fuel cost for gas-powered cars is approximately $0.13/mile, and the maintenance and repair cost is $0.10/mile. Due to the lower cost of electricity as a vehicle fuel (estimated at $0.05/mile) and EVs’ lower cost of repair (estimated at $0.08/mile in 2023 by AAA), switching a rideshare vehicle from gasoline to electric presents average savings of $0.10/mile.

How Stakeholders Can Equitably Expand EV Charging

Strengthen Infrastructure in Areas with Potential Demand

Effective charging deployment prioritizes strengthening infrastructure not only in places with existing demand — which tend to be whiter and more affluent — but also in places with potential demand, including lower-income neighborhoods where there are few if any off-street charging options.

A robust public charging network relies on DCFC chargers, which require higher levels of up-front investment to install. To recoup these costs, DCFC chargers need to be used often and placed in areas with existing and potential high demand.

Stakeholders can use RMI’s GridUp tool to identify these areas. GridUp forecasts charging demand nationwide, highlighting where demand for charging will materialize as more drivers switch to EVs. The tool also details where drivers do and will charge, whether at home, work, or at a public charger. Stakeholders can use this information to understand where chargers should be installed.

Prioritize EV Charging in Parking Minimum Mandate Reform

Like many cities across the United States, the cities we surveyed face an affordable housing crisis. To alleviate high housing costs, many local governments are exploring ways to quickly build new housing.

Changing minimum parking requirements has been a particular area of focus. These requirements greatly increase the cost of development, and those costs are often passed on to tenants and customers. A 2020 report from Urbanism Next found that “parking requirements reduce developers’ profits per acre.... Parking requirements reduce developers’ incentive to produce affordable housing.” These costs are especially high in places like New York City, where land is at a premium.

Given that off-street parking is one of the biggest barriers to small-lot residential infill development, many cities are lowering or eliminating parking minimum mandates for new developments, leaving it to developers to determine how many parking spaces to provide. These reforms have shown results: after 2017, when Buffalo, New York, eliminated parking minimum mandates for new developments, affordable housing stock increased.

Three of the cities we surveyed are following suit:

• In 2024, the Phoenix City Council approved a plan to reduce the required number of parking spaces per residential unit for new multifamily housing developments. The new policy calls for 5 spaces per residential unit, but the requirement drops to 1.5 spaces per unit in “walkable” areas.
• In June 2023, Portland’s City Council eliminated all minimum parking space requirements for new construction, an early step in a series of actions designed to promote more affordable housing development.
• In 2021, Salt Lake City reduced parking minimums and implemented parking maximums citywide, setting a ceiling instead of a floor on how much parking developers can build.

While reducing or eliminating parking minimums can help increase housing affordability, such reforms may contract rather than expand access to EVs. As our analysis shows, 78 percent of all charging sessions occurred at a single-family home; if new multifamily housing developments don’t have parking spots with EV chargers, they risk depriving residents of EVs’ many benefits.

Building a Charging Network for All

Many cities and states are working diligently to expand EV charging infrastructure. Since upgrading and installing chargers can take years, it’s critical that the decisions they make today are informed by robust data and analysis. With thoughtful, data-driven planning, the charging infrastructure build-out can meet the needs of e-TNC drivers, people who are considering purchasing or leasing an EV today, and those who have not historically had access to reliable, cost-effective transportation.