What is Electrica?
Electrica is a tool to support state-level understanding to advance transportation electrification in the United States. Hovland Consulting, in partnership with Chicane Labs and Angela Bonnarigo and Associates, developed Electrica over the past one and a half years using community input from over 50 experts and a myriad of data sources. In 2020, we had a great response from the community, including a desire to engage with the tool on their own, and used the tool in early applications that included states which are promising for freight policies.
In 2021, we developed the online tool, the supporting website, beta tested the tool, added functionality, and refreshed Electrica’s data. In late September 2021, we publicly launched the Electrica Tool with the broader advocacy community through a community-oriented webinar. On the webinar community members learned about the tool, how to use it, and gained insight from some of the tool’s early users.
More Information About the Factors
Our goal with Electrica is reflected in the tool’s vision - “Data made simple” - within the context of prioritizing and understanding states to advance transportation electrification.
Electric is a tool that explores and normalizes a vast amount of data, so you can compare across widely varying factors. The tool groups data into 11 factors, with 80+ subfactors, to create an overall score for each of the 50 states. Our 11 factors are:
Policy momentum, such as if a state has adopted a Zero Emission Vehicle regulation, is pursuing clean truck rules, or has set electric vehicle targets
Political opportunity, including positive opportunities and auto industry influence
Federal policy influence, such as if the state has representatives on important Congressional committees or is a swing state
Transport greenhouse gas emissions, including overall or heavy duty emissions
EV market potential, looking at demographics of uptake or model and charging availability
Market trends influence, including manufacturing presence or high vehicle ownership rates
EV jobs, including current and potential electric vehicle jobs
Utilities, with current policies and dollar investments, plus a utility’s focus on clean power
Corporate influence, such as Fortune 1000 headquarters or corporate commitments to EVs
Mobility & pollution inequities, reflecting demographics of poverty or people of color, the impacts on health (deaths, or asthma), plus equity champions already advancing equitable polices
Oil influence, looking at oil production and refining, EV fees, plus opposition budget and influence (a user can toggle whether to focus on or avoid states with high oil influence)
How Electrica can help
Electrica is designed to help users:
Explore data and better understand important aspects related to electrifying transport.
Spark ideas and customize analysis based on what is important to users, their organizations, the local communities, or funders – or see the overlap between different ways of approaching states.
Share findings with teams, other partners, communities, and decision-makers.
Webinar recording and more information
To learn more and watch recordings of the webinar, please see:
Introduction and Overview of Electrica (11 minutes)
Electric Demonstration (14 minutes)
Electrica Panel Discussion (15 minutes)
Electrica access is invite-only. If you have recommendations for others, send to Electrica@HovlandConsulting.com.