In Southern California, I would say that the vast majority of fuel efficient cars on the road were Prius, Leafs, and a few Chevy Volts just before the pandemic. Teslas were considered more of a luxury car so they were there, but not as many. At that time, I would say that you would see 1 out every 20-25 cars being a hybrid or EV.
Over this weekend, I was at a busy intersection in Los Angeles and at least half the cars that I drove pass or were around me were EVs or Hyrbids of various brands. I know it’s a small sample size, but I would say that we’re now looking at about 1 out of every 10-12 vehicles in Los Angeles being an EV or hybrid.
The way you can really tell the large jump in EVs in particular are the long lines waiting to charge cars at an Electrify America station. Pre-pandemic, there were no lines. Today, there are long lines even at 1am at the popular EA level three stations.
For me, this is great to see. But, I am also aware that California has done a lot to promote EVs/Hybrids over the last several years to make this a thing. The other thing that has helped is that there are numerous charging stations around my city. Granted, many of these are level 2 chargers. But I have 8 charging points within walking distance from my house. We still need a lot more level 3 chargers, but my city has a very good spread of level 2 chargers throughout the city with many more to come.
For those that do not live in California, are you also seeing a boom in EVs/Hyrbids. I’m curious to see if this is what you see if your living in the midwest or the south.
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California is way, way, way ahead of the rest of the country with around 25% of new cars purchased being EVs vs 6-7% for the rest of the country. That said, I live in Texas in a pretty conservative suburban area and there’s more EV’s on the road than I can count. I’d say on busy streets, consistently at least 3 of the cars stopped are EVs (myself and 2 others). On my street I have an EV6, one of my immediate neighbors has an ID.4 and another a few houses down a Leaf, around the corner a few Tesla’s and a Mach E. A friend of mine just got a Ariya.
remember where the rest of the country is today, is where California was a few years ago… granted politics unfortunately comes to play with EV’s no idea why. Wait yes i do, fox news
I live outside of Richmond, VA in a fairly wealthy suburb. I wasnt very aware of EVs until 18 mo ago when i was told (incorrectly) that my head gasket was blown and I started looking for a replacement. So now I notice.
When I’m at the Whole Foods near me, there are always several EVs in the parking lot - but probably not more than 5 or 10% of the cars, max. When I worked at the DMV downtown I rarely saw any in the employee lot.
So definitely still seen as a luxury car here, i think.
I live in a small town just south of San Francisco and in the one mile drive from my house to town I typically see at least a dozen Teslas.
I heard an NPR report that said CA has 3% BEVs while TX has 2%. Hybrids not included in those figures. Very surprising to see that CA has only 50% more BEVs considering how CA and TX are on the extreme ends of the political spectrum.
Edit: It may have been 2% in Travis county (Austin), which sounds more realistic