How does the users’ EV carbon footprint compare to the pre-EV one? A change from say 80th percentile to 60th is still above average, but an improvement nevertheless.

Wealthier people tend to have bigger carbon footprints because they have bigger homes, travel more, can afford more goods, etc.

don’t let big oil trick you into forgetting that companies are the real culprit

Better they drive an EV than a huge gas guzzler.

Well, duh. If you change nothing about your lifestyle except adding an EV to your fleet, you’re not helping the climate.
We can’t produce and consume our way out of this.

Rich people eat more animal products, live in large single family homes and travel a lot so they need to go plant based, buy a condo instead of a mansion and fly less.

Interesting. Though I’d love to see more studies on this and especially ones comparing countries. I know that in Belgium it seems many EV owners also own solar panels and are at least more likely to also have batteries. And the rich people can actually afford to build more climate neutral houses with heat pumps. (As heat pumps here are more expensive than heating with gas which is less efficient)

Apart from that I always figured ev’s are a great solution to local pollution: cars driving through streets, idling through intersections etc. Less so for global pollution though across their life they should still be better I thought.

I think what this shows is that EVs are, as of right now at least, more status symbols than climate mitigation tools. While some people certainly do buy EVs because they care about the planet, many don’t really care all that much. I think this is also holding back mass EV adoption in the US. We need EVs to be seen as the sensible choice for the average person, not playthings for the rich and opulent.

Wealthier? Not from what I’ve seen.