The most sustainable cities for electric cars

So, guess which are the most sustainable cities for electric cars?

Try Dallas, Houston and Detroit. Followed by St. Louis, Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix, Tampa, Cincinnati and Sacramento.

That’s the conclusion from new research by General Electric and Deloitte based on the assumption that the best markets for electric cars are cities with a high percentage of drivers whose daily commute is 50 miles or less.

That happens to be the ideal distance that electric car owners can go without suffering from “range anxiety” that they’ll drain their batteries before they can recharge.  The Nissan Leaf, which hits the streets in December, has a range of 100 miles, according to its manufacturer, while the Chevrolet Volt can travel up to 40 miles before a small gasoline engine kicks in to provide electricity to the car’s motor.

In GE’s analysis, car-dependent cities like Dallas will get the biggest charge out of electric cars because they offer residents who have no choice but to drive a way to kick their gasoline habit.

For instance, in J.R. Ewing’s hometown, 2.7 million people live within a 50-mile radius of downtown Dallas and a whopping 91.5 percent of commuters get behind the wheel to get to work, according to GE. The oil capital of Houston is close behind with 90 percent of the 2.4 million people in the commute zone driving to work.

The Motor City takes the first place for the most commuters who drive to work – 92.5 percent of Detroit residents.

Still, automakers are targeting green, early adopter West Coast markets like Los Angeles, Portland and San Francisco to roll out their first electric models.

Predicting how many people will go electric has become something of a cottage industry for research firms.

A new survey from Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates that plug-in vehicles will account for nine percent of United States auto sales in 2020, rising to 22 percent by 2030.

“It’s not just car companies who have a lot riding on their success – utilities, oil companies, whole countries will feel the impact if there is rapid uptake,” Michael Liebreich, Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s chief executive, said in a statement.