The key to cutting emissions from cars and light trucks that are heating the planet could lie with the nation’s super drivers, the small percentage of American motorists who drive, on average, about 110 miles per day.
If more of those drivers switched to electric vehicles from gasoline-powered models, it would make a major dent in greenhouse gases from transportation, which have so far been slow to decline, according to a new analysis published on Wednesday by Coltura, an environmental nonprofit group based in Seattle.
While the average American driver travels about 13,400 miles per year, people who buy electric vehicles today tend to drive them less than that, limiting the climate benefits of switching to a cleaner car.
By contrast, the top 10 percent of motorists in the United States drive an average of about 40,200 miles per year and account for roughly one-third of the nation’s gasoline use. Persuading more of these “gasoline superusers” to go electric would lead to a much faster reduction in emissions, the Coltura report found.
That includes people like Pedro Jimenez, 40, who lives in northwest Georgia and says he can “easily” travel around 150 to 200 miles per day to different job sites around the region, where he remodels homes and rehabilitates apartment buildings.
He drives a 2015 Ford F-150 pickup truck so he can haul drywall, appliances and other equipment, and typically spends around $200 to $300 per week on gas, which can eat up a quarter or more of his pay.
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