Health Benefits Quantification for New-Energy Vehicles Promotion: A Case Study of Beijing

Abstract

Considering that the promotion of new-energy vehicles (NEVs) is a potential measure to address urban air pollution, the Chinese government has launched subsidy schemes to improve its market penetration. The purpose of this study is to quantify the economic benefits of NEV promotion from 2016 to 2019 and compare them with the cost of government subsidies in Beijing, so the effectiveness of the NEV policies can be evaluated and valuable recommendations can be provided for decision-making. The exposure–response model and the cost of illness approach was applied to evaluate the health and economic benefits of NEV promotion. Our results are as follows: (1) promoting NEVs can reduce the PM2.5 concentration significantly, the average annual concentration reduction was between 3.23 μg/m3 and 4.61 μg/m3; (2) at least 37,545 illnesses and deaths in Beijing could be reduced through NEV promotion annually, internal disease (15–64) was the most affected illness; (3) the economic benefits of NEV promotion were far more than the cost and the net benefits stock reached 33.71 billion CNY in 2019, accounting for 0.95% of Beijing’s GDP in the same period. This study provides references in the perspective of environmental economics for the policy formulation of promoting NEVs.