A new report released Thursday by HERE Technologies and SBD Automotive examines the EV market against four key metrics, with the strength of public charging being highly valued among American consumers.
“We’ve found, from doing this in the last couple of years, that that’s what consumers, predominantly in the U.S., are valuing, more than a lot of other things,” Ronak Amin, global product marketing lead for HERE Technologies said, pointing out Kentucky’s improvement on the annual HERE–SBD EV Index, as the report is known. Kentucky moved up from 45th to 28th in the U.S. rankings, an improvement driven largely by the state’s development of high-speed charging locations.
Iowa moved up from 38th last year to 23rd, thanks to the addition of 340 new charge points, the study found.
West Virginia, however, slipped from its previous ranking of 18th to 42nd, due to declines in average charging power.
To measure the EV maturity in each state, researchers from HERE, a mapping and location technology company, and SBD, which offers automotive and mobility consulting, focused on four key metrics: the number of chargers per road length, average charger power, number of chargers per EV in the state, and the number of registered EVs in the state.
Surveys and other research from the study pointed to an EV market in the United States that continues to lag both the European Union and Asia.
“The U.S. is, unfortunately, still very skeptical of EVs. Very state-by-state, of course. But in general, quite skeptical, compared to Europe,” Robert Fisher, SBD electrification and sustainability principal, said. The study’s survey showed 57 percent of U.S. respondents are likely to purchase a gasoline-powered car for their next vehicle, compared to only 25 percent in Europe.
The EV demand among early adopters in the U.S. has largely been filled, Fisher said.
“They’ve been very interested in EVs. Now they’ve got EVs. So now we have to figure out how to get from that market to the general mainstream population,” he said. “That’s where the biggest struggle is. Europe has already gotten past that point.”
Adding to that struggle is the loss of the $7,500 federal tax credit, set to expire at the end of the month.
However, even if indications seem to show a lagging U.S. market for EVs — continuing to be outpaced by Europe and Asia — it is not diminishing, observers said, pointing to the growth of charging technology and of electric vehicle purchases. The U.S. added 37,000 charging points in the last year — a 19 percent increase — and grew charging power by 52 percent, according to the study.
Another trend surfacing, Amin said, is the leadership taken by the automakers themselves to build out charging locations.
“That’s something that in the beginning stages of electrification, they shied away from,” he said. “And they’re kind of moving in and investing in those higher-powered chargers. Fast charging is really what consumers want and need, and that’s one of the areas helping to move some of these states up.”
