EV Penetration in My Utah Neighborhood

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These of us who comply with electrical automobile gross sales know that totally electrical automobiles accounted for greater than 80% of Norway’s auto gross sales in 2023, and that 100% electrical automobiles already make up greater than 24% of the overall fleet there. We additionally know that in China, which has about half of all worldwide EV gross sales, gross sales penetration of BEVs was at about 25% in 2023. Nevertheless, EVs nonetheless made up lower than 5% of the overall fleet in China by the top of the 12 months.

In California, 25% of all vehicles bought within the final quarter of 2023 had been EVs — it’s the largest EV market within the US by far. Nevertheless, EVs made up simply ~4% of the overall California mild automobile fleet on the finish of 2022. Though 1 in 4 new vehicles bought in California final quarter had been EVs, it’s going to take a very long time earlier than a big a part of the sunshine automobile fleet is EVs.

US plugin automobile gross sales had been solely ~8% in 2022 (9.4% in 2023) and the overall proportion of the fleet was just one.3% by the top of the 12 months.  Then again, older vehicles have a tendency to take a seat within the storage whereas new ones are pushed extra. That is significantly true of EVs vs. gasoline vehicles. In my home, everybody needs to drive the EV. The gasoline automobile is certainly the final choice to be exercised.

How does this examine to EV penetration in my Northern Utah neighborhood?

After I retired from NASA Goddard Area Flight Middle in Maryland in 2005, we moved to Lindon, Utah, 30 miles south of Salt Lake Metropolis, to be close to our children and grandchildren. We picked a home with a fantastic view of Utah Valley and Utah Lake. After residing for 65 years in areas the place Mormons (members of our religion) had been a tiny minority, we had been shocked to study that of the 120 households in our neighborhood, roughly 115 had been energetic Mormons and commonly attended our ward (congregation) in our native chapel constructing. That is the story of EV uptake in our ward.

In 2014, 4 of our ward members, together with me, purchased Nissan LEAFs for the killer lease worth of $200/month. Two of the members didn’t renew the leases. I, nevertheless, was hooked on EVs. I additionally leased a 2016 Nissan LEAF after which bought a 2018 Nissan LEAF.

1) On October 19, 2019, I made the large bounce and traded the LEAF in for a white, dual-motor, 310-mile vary Tesla Mannequin 3 which I nonetheless personal.

2) At about the identical time, a member of our ward bought a pink efficiency model of the 2019 Tesla Mannequin 3 (see image under).

The true EV pioneer of the ward had began with an EV conversion of his Triumph sports activities automobile again in 2012, but it surely wasn’t very profitable. Extra not too long ago, he has bought a 3) Chevy Volt and a 4) Chevy Bolt (see image under).

5) Additionally, my neighbor simply throughout the road then bought a Chevy Volt.

For the subsequent 3 years, nothing! Nevertheless, 12 months in the past, one of many early LEAF house owners in my ward bought 6) a yellow Ford Mustang Mach-E (see under). He likes the attractive yellow colour however is kind of disenchanted as a result of he doesn’t suppose the know-how is kind of as much as the requirements of Tesla.

7) Then, the second early LEAF proprietor purchased the attractive Tesla Mannequin X proven under.

I additionally simply came upon that one other ward member bought 8) a fantastic white Rivian pickup truck. It’s the featured automobile on the Drop Detailing (Murray, Utah) web site. He made a cross-country journey not too long ago and was not impressed with the CCS fast-charging infrastructure at this level. The opposite day, 9) a fantastic pink Tesla Mannequin X drove by my home. It was bought by one other of the 4 early LEAF house owners who had lastly determined to go completely electrical.

Popping out of our neighborhood church beginning a couple of weeks in the past, there was 10) a white Tesla Mannequin Y parked within the lot. (See image under.)

As you’ll be able to see, the dam has damaged and we’re properly on our method to EVs taking on the auto market in my neighborhood right here in Utah. Additionally, remarkably, all 4 ward members who tried EVs in 2014 at the moment are everlasting EV house owners. Sadly, it’s not almost sufficient, and on inversion days right here within the Wasatch Entrance area, the polluted air is lethal. (See image additional down under.) As not too long ago as 2021, there have been 62 obligatory unhealthy air alert days per 12 months on the Wasatch Entrance. Thus, even when you don’t imagine or care about international warming, driving electrical is essential. Even if you’re conscious that many of the electrical energy in Utah nonetheless comes from burning coal, that coal is burned far means and we now have loads of motivation for switching to EVs right here.

That makes a complete of 10 EVs in my neighborhood (congregation) of 120 households. That will be an EV penetration of ~8%. In comparison with the US whole fleet penetration of 1.3%, we’re doing fairly properly. Nevertheless, if we determine that every household owns a mean of two vehicles, that will drop the penetration to about 4% — about the identical as the entire state of California. It’s attention-grabbing that we’re doing as properly right here in my neighborhood as California is doing, the state main the US in EV adoption by a big margin.

10 EVs within the neighborhood is an enormous deal! EVs are now not simply owned by two of us EV evangelists going inexperienced. They’ve turn into mainstream and we might get many extra EV gross sales quickly within the neighborhood.

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