2024 Focus Areas
The ZEV transition is progressing quickly and has reached the mainstream market in many ZEV Alliance jurisdictions. At this stage, challenges related to affordability and universal access to charging infrastructure take on renewed importance. At the same time, it is increasingly important to maximize the climate and environmental benefits of ZEVs to address the urgency of the climate crisis.
Making charging more user-friendly
Public charging has grown rapidly alongside electric vehicle sales, but chargers are often unreliable and unintuitive for users. These challenges will only grow as ZEV sales move from early adopters to mainstream drivers, and as medium- and heavy-duty ZEV infrastructure proliferates.
This focus area will:
Investigate challenges and emerging solutions to issues of reliability, interoperability, price transparency, and accessibility for charging
Building from research, regulations, and joint efforts within ZEV Alliance jurisdictions, provide recommendations for improving the user experience without adding burdensome costs
Examine how these challenges differ by geography (across continents, and urban vs. rural) and for disadvantaged communities.
Battery materials sourcing and sustainability
Governments and companies leading the ZEV transition naturally seek to understand the supply chain of critical materials that power ZEVs, their global availability, where these materials are processed, and the expected evolution of their prices.
This focus area will:
Investigate risks around the supply and sustainability of ZEV critical raw materials, with a specific focus on batteries
Analyze the environmental and social impact of mining these raw materials
Provide policy recommendations on how to mitigate the environmental impact of raw materials sourcing and processing, and plan for price fluctuations
Explore policy strategies to ensure secure and reliable supply of key minerals, and incorporate environmental and societal costs
Challenges and opportunities for ZEVs in rural communities
The ZEV transition will unfold differently in rural communities than in cities due to their unique vehicle needs and driving patterns, as well as the economics of charging infrastructure deployment.
This focus area will:
Seek to quantitatively understand how the ZEV transition has developed in rural areas to date
Assess the unique opportunities and barriers to ZEV adoption for rural communities such as suitable vehicle availability, total cost of ownership, and infrastructure needs
Survey approaches for engaging rural drivers and designing appropriate ZEV solutions, by governments and community organizations
Draw lessons for scalable approaches to ensure that rural communities are not left behind in the transition
Selection Process
The ZEV Alliance’s annual workplan revolves around focus areas, or themes, for collaborative discussion and research. Focus areas are selected through a comprehensive member survey each year to identify the most pressing challenges jurisdictions are facing as they pursue their own ZEV targets. The ZEV Alliance typically conducts three focus areas per year, which typically feature multiple member policy discussions, a research report (available to the public), and presentation of findings at virtual and/or in-person events.
2023 Focus Areas
Understanding the business case for EV charging infrastructure
A positive business case for charging infrastructure deployment is emerging in leading markets, but the details depend on many factors. The ZEV Alliance, working with Cenex and ICF, explored the factors which influence the profitability of public charging particularly for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, including case studies on Canada, China, India, and the Netherlands. The project resulted in a report as well as an interactive modeling tool available for public use.
Policies and innovative approaches to maximizing overnight charging in multi-unit dwellings
Slow overnight charging is usually the cheapest, most convenient, and most grid-friendly way to charge an EV, but this option is often not available for those living in apartment buildings. In this focus area, the ZEV Alliance quantified the cost benefits of overnight charging and its connection to economic disparities. Through interviews with expert stakeholders in the public and private sectors, the project culminated in a set of policies and actions to rapidly improve overnight charging access in apartment buildings.
Tailoring incentives for light- and heavy-duty vehicles
EV incentives are key in the early market to spur ZEV uptake but are increasingly being phased out and targeted toward specific use cases as the market develops. This focus area surveyed the historical development of incentives and identified different ways they can be targeted to make the transition more equitable while maximizing environmental benefits. The research also looked at recent evidence on vehicle costs and EV adoption rates to update the timeline for when mainstream incentives could be phased out for light- as well as medium- and heavy-duty ZEVs.
Previous Focus Areas
To discover resources from previous years’ research, explore our publications.
2015
Global ZEV transition
ZEV climate mitigation potential
2016
Evolving consumer incentives
Utility best practices
Consumer awareness programs
2017
Heavy-duty ZEV technology costs
Charging infrastructure best practices
Hydrogen fueling infrastructure
2018
Electrifying non-road transport
Fast charging lessons learned
Electrifying shared fleets
2019
Funding the ZEV transition
Implementing smart charging
Expanding ZEV access
2020
Zero-emission freight
Supply chain dynamics
Electrifying fleets
2021
Mature, equitable charging ecosystem
Supporting 100% ZEV targets
Used ZEV market
2022
Environmental justice impacts of ZEVs
Charging for electric trucks
Battery reuse and recycling
2023
Charging in multi-unit dwellings
Business case for public charging
Incentives in the mainstream market