Gasoline Phaseout News – December 2024
A Heartfelt Thank You This Holiday Season
What an extraordinary journey we’ve shared in 2024! Because of your generosity and dedication—both our loyal donors and passionate supporters—we’ve achieved milestones we once only dreamed of. Together, we’ve transformed the conversation around gasoline consumption, from seeing our Gasoline Superusers research featured in the New York Times to witnessing groundbreaking Superuser legislation pass the California legislature with unanimous, bipartisan support. Your belief in our mission made possible the world’s most comprehensive studies on gasoline consumption, giving policymakers and advocates the tools they need to create real change.
As we celebrate these achievements, we’re deeply grateful for our donors whose financial support sustains this vital work, especially during these challenging times. To every individual who has contributed—whether through donations, advocacy, or sharing our message—you are the foundation of this movement.
From each of us on the staff and board of Coltura, you and your loved ones a joyful holiday season. Together, we’ll make 2025 even more impactful!
Working Families Can’t Afford to Lose the EV Tax Credit
With reports that the new administration plans to kill the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles (EVs), we risk losing our best shot at helping families escape gasoline’s drain on their wallets.
The EV tax credit ($7,500 for new EVs and $4,000 for used ones) doesn’t benefit wealthy Tesla drivers – they make too much to qualify. It helps America’s backbone: contractors, rural workers, and working families who could save $4,000 annually by switching to EVs. But 72% of Americans say EVs’ upfront costs are too high. That’s exactly why the tax credit matters.
Consider Pritesh Patel, an AT&T subcontractor from New Baltimore, who spends $500 monthly on gas driving his Ford Escape around Metro Detroit installing internet cable lines, and who could save $300 a month if he switched to an EV. “I could probably put that money somewhere else,” he says, “like…paying down bills or credit card debt.”
The families spending the most on gas are overwhelmingly in rural areas and small towns. As this election showed us, these are the voters both parties desperately need to reach. For them, an EV isn’t about making a statement; it’s about making ends meet.
By making EVs more affordable, the EV tax credit is people’s ticket out of lifelong, costly gasoline dependence. Switching to an electric vehicle could put over $4,000 annually back in the pockets of families burning the most gas– that’s real money for groceries, healthcare, or their kids’ education.
For the sake of working Amerians like Pritesh Patel, it’s critical to protect the federal EV tax credit.
Data Insight of the Month: EVs Save Drivers $92 a month on fuel in Q3
Electric vehicle drivers saved money in every state during 2024’s third quarter, according to Coltura’s Q3 2024 EV cost-savings index. Fueling an EV was 7.4 cents cheaper than fueling a gas car, so average US drivers (driving 1,200 miles a month) would save $92 monthly, or $1,104 annually by switching to an EV. (For those drivers in the top 10% for gasoline use – “Gasoline Superusers” – average annual savings were nearly $3,000.)
Visit Coltura’s EV Savings Index to see your savings by state, by annual miles, or by trip.
Gas Station of the Month: Kroger’s in Beavercreek, OH
A pickup truck and gas pump at Kroger’s gas station in Beavercreek Ohio caught fire while the truck was filling up on November 15
Culture Corner: Ford Plays “Country Roads” to Offer Free Home Charging
Do you secretly sing along to “Country Roads”? Ford uses the John Denver classic to promote its new program of offering a free home EV charger and installation to buyers of Ford EVs. Listen here.
Cleaner Air and a Healthier Planet – It’s Up to You
As Coltura heads into the New Year, we invite you to reflect on what Coltura means to the effort to reduce gasoline use at speed and scale. From our start in 2014, Coltura has been on the forefront of innovation in the cultural, legal, policy, and data dimensions of the shift away from gasoline toward EVs, and reporting on the progress of the gasoline phaseout movement in this newsletter. We’ve single-handedly started to change the national conversation from EV adoption to the real issue: gasoline reduction. If you believe that this work is needed for a faster transition beyond gasoline, for cleaner air and a healthier planet for future generations, then please donate to Coltura.
Thanks to a small group of staunch supporters, your gift will be DOUBLED. Give $100 and Coltura gets $200! Will you help us?
