Los Angeles Will Offer More Energy Incentives to Low-Income Residents

Los Angeles said on Thursday that it would build electric vehicle chargers and offer bigger rebates for the purchase of battery-powered cars in response to a new report that concluded that low-income people were being left behind in the transition to clean energy.

City officials said they would offer qualified residents up to $4,000 to buy used electric vehicles, up from $2,500, and build a network of fast chargers in underserved neighborhoods where few private companies have built such stations.

Los Angeles’s effort comes as government officials are struggling to make electric vehicles and clean energy more affordable. Sales of new battery-powered cars have slowed in recent months partly because many of the models are too expensive for most car buyers.

Some of these challenges were highlighted in the report, released on Thursday by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, a city-owned utility; the National Renewable Energy Laboratory; and the University of California, Los Angeles.