The overall demand for all-electric vehicles is so high that they can be sold upwards of $30,000 over their sticker price. While electric vehicle (EV) sales aren’t expected to take up much of the market share in Daviess County or Kentucky, steps are being taken by state officials and others to boost the number of EV charging stations across the state.
Duke Brubaker, General Manager of Champion Ford, said there is some local demand for EVs but manufacturers can’t get them out quick enough for various reasons — such as higher demand in other areas, slow rollout of the product to make sure everything is working properly, and waiting for more infrastructure to support the EV market.
Take the Ford F-150 Lightning all-electric truck, for example. It’s got a sleek, modern frame. It goes 0-60 in just over 4 seconds without the roar. It’s got a “frunk” (a front trunk) in place of the engine. It’s got a laptop-sized touchscreen display.
And it’s essentially got a 2-year wait list.
Brubaker said Champion had almost 40 reservations for Lightnings, but the dealership only got one all year to deliver to the first customer on the list. Champion was given another Lightning for customers to test drive and look at, but Ford won’t let the dealership sell it for 6 months.
“The 35 or 40 reservations that we had, those people are definitely not going to see their vehicle this year,” Brubaker said. “Maybe 5-10 will see it next year, and the rest will be in 2024. So a lot of those customers will probably cancel their reservations because they don’t want to wait two years.”
For those who can get their hands on an EV, Brubaker said one of the major concerns from prospective buyers is the range a vehicle can be driven before it needs to be charged again.
“I think range anxiety is the biggest problem with an electric vehicle because people can’t just pick up and drive to Destin in 8 or 9 hours,” Brubaker said. “You have to do some serious planning. Our vehicles are smart and they can teach you and show you how to get there the quickest way, and where to stop while you eat lunch or something and charge your vehicle at the same time. But as charging stations are limited, there may be lengthy lines to get charged. A 20-minute charge may take 3 hours because of the line. There’s definitely some growing pains that we’re going to go through.”
According to plugshare.com, Daviess County has eight public locations to charge an electric vehicle. (Check the site to see what time the details of each location including the type of charger.)
Legislators on the Interim Joint Committee on Transportation learned Tuesday about a plan to boost the number of electric vehicle charging stations in Kentucky.
John Moore, Assistant State Highway Engineer for Project Development and Cabinet Lead at the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, presented Kentucky’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment Plan, which he described as “initial.”
“I say initial because we anticipate this being updated routinely over the five-year life of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure funding, or NEVI funding,” said Moore (not the same John Moore who is the co-owner of the local Don Moore dealership).
Moore said the goal of the funding program is to create a convenient, reliable, affordable and equitable national electric vehicle charging network.
The initial focus of the NEVI Formula Funding Program is for charging stations on interstates to support long-distance travel. Kentucky is set to receive $69.5 million over 5 years for the project from the federal government. This is expected to be matched with $17.4 million from non-federal funds.
Moore said charging stations on highways should work quickly, rather than take several hours to charge vehicles. Under the funding program, the charging stations must use “direct current fast charging” technology and be less than 50 miles apart. These charging stations can work in 30 minutes, providing power for 250 miles.
Rep. Ken Upchurch, co-chair of the committee, asked Moore how electric vehicles might affect the power grid.
Moore said state officials have had conversations with electricity providers, and they are not concerned with the current power demand. He said a major impact on the power grid would require the rapid adoption of electric vehicles, which is not expected in Kentucky.
“It will be a slow adoption, and it will be a slow impact is what we are hearing,” Moore said.
Brubaker similarly said while there is definitely interest from local drivers, he think’s EVs will make up 20% or less of the market.
“I don’t see them taking over, especially here in our market,” he said. “We have our farmers. We have people that pull recreational vehicles, boats, trucks, etc. This vehicle will pull a lot of weight, but you’re going to have to have some serious planning to pull a 10,000-pound trailer to market or to the lake and then get it back. I don’t think customers are ready to make that transition yet.”
