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.
I wonder if EVs are seen around town more because they are driven more.
I believe that there is a strong effect where in a two car household with one EV and one non-EV, a large preference to driving the EV will occur. First it will tend to be the newer/nicer car so if you’re going out together somewhere why wouldn’t you take the EV. Second it would just make good financial sense to have the person with the longer commute use the EV.
But then there are probably a subset of drivers who do a lot of driving who might prefer an ICE because of the whole range/infrastructure issue. Also, more affordable housing often means longer commutes, and perhaps many ICE cars are doing long commutes because EVs, and new cars in general, are outside the price bracket of many people having to commute for a couple of hours every day.