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Power United States Transportation

A Handful of States Are Driving Nearly All US Electric Car Adoption (axios.com) 337

Using monthly vehicle registration data, Axios is tracking the transition to electric vehicles in the United States. What they found is that a handful of states are driving nearly all the country's electric car adoption. From the report: California -- no surprise -- leads the U.S. in electric vehicle ownership, accounting for 39% of all EVs registered nationwide. Look more closely at the numbers, however, and it turns out EVs represent less than 2% of all vehicles on the road in the Golden State. [...] 4.6% of the new vehicles registered in the U.S. this past May were electric, according to the [S&P Global Mobility's] most recent data. That's more than double EVs' share of monthly registrations in May 2021 (1.9%). EVs still account for only about 0.6% of all registered vehicles in the U.S. Take California's EVs away, and it's just 0.4%.

As of April 1, Florida has the second-highest share of the country's EVs, at 6.7%. Then comes Texas (5.4%), Washington (4.4%), and New York (3.6%). Yet, EVs account for only 1% or less of all vehicles within each of these states. Besides California, the states or areas with the highest share of EVs within their own borders: Hawaii (1.3%), and the District of Columbia (1.2%).
"Tesla's brand loyalty more than doubled in the month of May and was higher than any brand in the industry, including Toyota and Ford," S&P Global Mobility analyst Tom Libby tells Axios, noting that the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 are growing in popularity.

"We're just seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of what's coming," says Libby.
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A Handful of States Are Driving Nearly All US Electric Car Adoption

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  • by Registered Coward v2 ( 447531 ) on Wednesday August 03, 2022 @06:32AM (#62758252)
    The problem is the lack of a convienent charging infrastructure. EV's are great if you never venture beyond your home, but on longer trips becomes problematic. Sure, you can charge enroute with planning; but unless where you are saying has charging stations you still have to find a station, go there and wait for a charge. Since ICE is a lot more convenient, until the charging problem is solved EV uptake will remain small. Some of my Tesla owning friends dumped them because of the lack of charging availability on vacations or business trips despite liking the vehicle.
    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by quonset ( 4839537 )

      Sure, you can charge enroute with planning;

      If you don't mind waiting half an hour at each stop. Compared to five minutes or so when filling your vehicle with gas.

      One thing is for sure, you'll never see an electric vehicle try the Cannonball Run [wikipedia.org] across the country.

      • by VeryFluffyBunny ( 5037285 ) on Wednesday August 03, 2022 @07:00AM (#62758320)

        Sure, you can charge enroute with planning;

        If you don't mind waiting half an hour at each stop. Compared to five minutes or so when filling your vehicle with gas.

        One thing is for sure, you'll never see an electric vehicle try the Cannonball Run [wikipedia.org] across the country.

        ...and here's why that's a good thing: https://www.nsc.org/road-safet... [nsc.org]

        • Aluminium air with battery swaps could challenge the record.

        • Sure, you can charge enroute with planning;

          If you don't mind waiting half an hour at each stop. Compared to five minutes or so when filling your vehicle with gas.

          One thing is for sure, you'll never see an electric vehicle try the Cannonball Run [wikipedia.org] across the country.

          ...and here's why that's a good thing: https://www.nsc.org/road-safet [nsc.org]... [nsc.org]

          I'll bet you are a lot of fun at parties...

          ;)

          • You are implying that the person who doesn't mind waiting for their car to charge in the middle of nowhere is somehow more fun at parties?
            • You are implying that the person who doesn't mind waiting for their car to charge in the middle of nowhere is somehow more fun at parties?

              No, more the part that you seem overly concerned with someone driving on a roadtrip and not taking breaks every couple hours.

              It was also said, somewhat tongue in cheek.

              ;)

          • That'd depend on the parties - we can only be as much fun as the host & other guests enable us to be (Yes, I've been lucky & had a lot more than my fair share of fun). Plus, I can drink & take other driver-impairing substances as much as I want to because I'm not driving home.

            How are the parties you go to?
            • P.S. I can confidently state, without hesitation, that I have never driven home after a party & never would.
              • I'm getting a bit older and don't party as much as I used to, but I always got home.

                Yep I and my friends have all driven after a "party", no problems.

                These days, however, since we have Uber, if I know I"m going to be drinking, I just Uber wherever I need to go, but in the old days, it was extremely common to drive even after you'd had a few. Everyone did it.

                Those parking lots outside of bars, were NOT all driven by designated drivers, and at closing time, they were all gone home.

                Different times...more a

      • Actually, EVs have done the Cannonball run. But they take two days while the ICE record is under 24 hours now I believe. I have googled it many times, I don't feel like it right now.
      • If you don't mind waiting half an hour at each stop.

        If you're not taking a half hour break every few hundred miles, you're probably a menace on the road due to lack of concentration.

        One thing is for sure, you'll never see an electric vehicle try the Cannonball Run across the country.

        That's bad why?

        • If you're not taking a half hour break every few hundred miles, you're probably a menace on the road due to lack of concentration.

          Geez, we seem to more and more be becoming a nation of pussies.

          Let me guess, you always drive the speed limit too, right?

      • Out of curiosity, I just used A Better Route Planner to plot a route for a Tesla Model 3 to do a Canonball Run (Darien, CT to Los Angeles, CA). The 2842 mile route requires 19 stops for charging and is estimated to take 46 hours and 22 minutes, which includes 5 hours and 56 minutes of charging over 19 stops along the way. This is slower than the Canonball Run record of 32 hours and 51 minutes, but ABRP is assuming that you'll not exceed the speed limit by more than 5 mph along the way.

        The longest stretch be

      • > One thing is for sure, you'll never see an electric vehicle try the Cannonball Run across the country.

        Ask me how I know you didn't even look at that Wikipedia page...

        =Smidge=

    • by Smidge204 ( 605297 ) on Wednesday August 03, 2022 @06:50AM (#62758300) Journal

      There's a lot more charging infrastructure than you probably realize.

      The reason California is so far out in front is they've been incentivizing EV sales and adoption for over a decade at this point. Only a handful of states have had any kind of emissions/efficiency requirement (of which California is one) which are usually the targets for sales of "compliance cars" - cars that are only made and sold in select areas because local laws basically require they offer something. Lot harder to buy a vehicle in a state that it's not sold in.

      So basically what we see today is the result of 10+ years of legal framework promoting, incentivizing, and in some cases mandating electric vehicles until they reach a critical mass of public adoption and become normal and desirable.
      =Smidge=

      • by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Wednesday August 03, 2022 @01:11PM (#62759412) Journal

        IMO, the charging infrastructure is still pretty poor, relative to the "standard" of how many gas stations there are to stop at.

        I mean, let's look at the facts. At a typical gas pump, one customer only needs to spend several minutes at it. Then it's freed up for the next customer who needs to use it. At a typical "DC fast charging station", you're looking at an electric vehicle occupying it for more like 30-40 minutes.

        Even giving the benefit of the doubt (assuming 5 minutes for each person filling up at a pump and 30 minutes spent charging), that means the EV charger can serve 6x fewer users per day.

        The "saving grace" for EVs is simply the fact that in most cases, their owners are charging up at their residence whenever their vehicle is parked there. Presumably, they start out each day with basically a full charge -- and that's enough to handle their daily commute and "around town" use, without ever needing to use a public fast charger.

        Still? That doesn't help anyone trying to do a road trip with their EV, or the folks who drive more than usual (realtors, traveling salespeople, delivery drivers, etc.).

        Compounding the issue? Many DC fast chargers reside on car dealership lots, where realistically? You can't rely on being able to use them. They may advertise them as "free and available to the public", but often, they're locked up behind a gate when the dealership closes. And during the day, the dealerships use them for their OWN hybrid or EVs they're trying to sell, AND they often block them with other vehicles since their lots get crowded with cars left for service work, customers visiting to shop, etc. etc.

        I've been driving a Tesla for the last 4 years or so now, and I've gotten really familiar with the charging options out there. Tesla has done a good job of expanding their supercharger network -- but they've also raised prices considerably to use them. It's typically not much/any cheaper than gasoline with the current electric rates in many cities (big "demand" surcharges for drawing high amperage current like those fast chargers use). When the cost savings over gas isn't really there anymore for a road trip, it gets tough to justify driving it -- given the much longer stops to charge up along the way. And on at least one trip, I had to find a 3rd. party fast charger to use because a big power outage in the area took down the Tesla supercharger station I planned on using (when my battery was really low already!).

    • So what you're saying is that EVs are currently unsuitable for leisure driving holidays & long-distance travel for business & that these people are already catered for by ICE vehicles.

      Counter argument: It's very dangerous to drive long distances without proper rest breaks. Why not take the train or plane & hire a car when you get there if you need one? It's far more relaxing.
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Here's a sample run from Richmond, VA to Sacramento, CA, in a Tesla Model 3: https://abetterrouteplanner.co... [abetterrouteplanner.com]

      Here's the same thing in a Hyundai Ioniq 5: https://abetterrouteplanner.co... [abetterrouteplanner.com]

      Note that this is of course assuming you drove non-stop (apart from charging), and in reality you would have multiple stays at hotels where you could probably charge and reduce your need for charging stops.

      Apparently the infrastructure, at least along that route, isn't so bad after all.

    • I'm actually surprised at the number of EV charges when you start looking at the map https://www.plugshare.com/ [plugshare.com] Sure not every one is a Tesla super charger but the amount of smaller 6kw chargers in little towns is a great sign. I mean we now have an official Cannonball run time (fastest time from NY to LA without getting arrested) for a Tesla. https://www.roadandtrack.com/n... [roadandtrack.com] The Tesla record isn't far from the 1971 record time.

      • It's interesting to note that the Porsche Taycan has problems, in that it was often faulting out during charging because the charger was sending it too much power. Some software issue with the car IIRC.

        The Taycan can theoretically charge ~10% faster than the Model 3 (270kw vs 250kw max for Tesla V3 superchargers), so if they fix the software problems it might be possible to take the record back. The CCS chargers themselves are theoretically capable of 350KW.
        =Smidge=

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      The problem is the lack of a convienent charging infrastructure. EV's are great if you never venture beyond your home, but on longer trips becomes problematic. Sure, you can charge enroute with planning; but unless where you are saying has charging stations you still have to find a station, go there and wait for a charge. Since ICE is a lot more convenient, until the charging problem is solved EV uptake will remain small. Some of my Tesla owning friends dumped them because of the lack of charging availability on vacations or business trips despite liking the vehicle.

      EV's only work when most people don't have one. The UK's grid is pretty solid but it's not going to handle 10 million cars charging at once... let alone the 37.2 million registered vehicles we have. The 4 or 5 charger per station (only about 2 work at any given time according to my PHEV owning colleague) aren't going to cut it and work has just said that no-one can use the chargers they installed in the basement car park (because they cost too much, so they terminated the contract).

      First there will be a

    • It is being built right now, across the nation. We're building charging for trucking now, and others are building charging for light trucks and cars. It's still early days, but it's coming.

    • For the moment, I'd say the main thing holding back EV's is simply availability. Tesla, Ford, Kia, Rivian... tell me who makes an EV you can simply purchase on demand?
    • by brunes69 ( 86786 )

      Wrong.

      The problem is actually building the things. If you want an EV right now, you are in for a ~ 3 month wait. If you want an EV right now *that is not a Tesla*, you are in for a ~ 12 month wait. That is how backed up all of the manufacturers are due to supply chain issues.

      There is no issue with EV demand. The core issue with EVs right now is its impossible to build them fast enough to meet said demand.

    • by Bert64 ( 520050 )

      It depends on your needs, a lot of people never travel beyond their local area or do so extremely rarely (if you're going long distance for a once a year holiday you can rent a car, or fly etc). Other people will have a car for local trips (commuting, shopping etc) and something else like an RV for long trips.

      Many countries are also a lot smaller than the US, so a car with a 300 mile range can get you anywhere you need to go and often back again too.

      EVs currently cater to these people, and there are a lot o

  • by CastrTroy ( 595695 ) on Wednesday August 03, 2022 @08:46AM (#62758526)

    Relevant XKCD [xkcd.com]

    Ok, so it doesn't match up perfectly with population, Washington state seems to be an outlier, but the fact that they report on total number of cars rather than cars per capita doesn't really help. Electric cars are going to be popular in places that have more and denser populations. They are also going to be less popular in colder climates because of the belief that they just don't work in cold weather (even if they do work reasonably well).

    • +1 should have been per capita.

      The gross number of vehicles does at least reveal whose purchasing preferences and whose state legislatures will have the most say in driving the market and thus shaping the products' design. (Of course CA was and is the 800 lb gorilla with gas cars too)

      • by Junta ( 36770 )

        But they were talking in percentage of sales, not numbers of vehicles sold, so it was already more 'per capita'

        • The only per-capita percentages mentioned in the article are the percent of all cars currently on the road that are EV's within a few states - bizarrely not including the leader, California.
    • by Junta ( 36770 )

      It's a little different as they expressly talk about percentage of new car sales, rather than a metric like 'total number of EVs sold'. So that sort of metric doesn't have to be tied into population.

      For example, the converse statement "ICE sales are higher" in the same sense, but would be something of an inverse population map.

      • by Junta ( 36770 )

        Nevermind, they go back and forth between talking about percentage of EVs sold and percentage within a state but doesn't do percentage comparisons state to state...

        It's a weird mix and match that is really just trying to support a certain story...

  • the places with the most population in the country have the highest volume of sales. im like get the fuck out, right?!

  • Odd... but while I can see MA is in the 2-4% range, you can't hover over it to get the actual figure (you can get it for RI and CT, though).

    This doesn't include PHEV's, does it?

    I agree some relative numbers (e.g. EV/capita) would be more useful. They do specify EVs as a percentage of registered vehicles overall, but not by state.

  • by peterww ( 6558522 ) on Wednesday August 03, 2022 @09:36AM (#62758638)

    Every consumer car manufacturer has committed to making electrical cars, and most have committed to ending making gas cars. It's the future, and it's on the way. By 2030, most cars sold will be electric.

    Don't worry about the numbers today. Think of the numbers in 10 years.

  • They should use quarterly, not monthly, registration data.

    Some vendors are not delivering every month. In particular, Tesla tends to deliver all their orders at end of quarter. If you look at the monthly figures you see all sorts of weird month-to-month swings. If you look per-quarter, it's much more consistent and intelligible.

  • Making more battery electric vehicles is the wrong answer, because people are asking the wrong questions. The question people are asking is how to build the most electric vehicles when the question they should be asking is how to lower CO2 emissions in the least amount of time.

    We'd get every plane, train, and automobile to net zero carbon emissions with synthesized fuels. The average commuter car is a small portion of the total CO2 emissions, and battery electric vehicles are only practical for these cars

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