Analysts at Coltura, a nonprofit that is working to accelerate the transition from gasoline, calculate that the top 10% of drivers consume 32% of the gasoline — more than the bottom 60% combined. The top 20% use nearly half the gas, the Washington Post reports.
Coltura calls this top 10% “super-users.” They’re people like my father-in-law, who drives a Ford F-150 on his 40-mile daily commute through rural Texas. Because gasoline consumption is so uneven across car owners, it doesn’t just matter how quickly electric vehicles get on the road. “It is also essential to ask who goes first,” writes Kristin Eberhard, the director of climate policy at the Niskanen Center.