Nowadays, it is hard to find a person who does not have an opinion about EVs. As is increasingly common with information in America, some consumers are arriving at opinions by deliberating facts, while others are misled by exposure to falsehoods. The fifth annual “Transportation Electrification in the Southeast” report, prepared by Atlas Public Policy in partnership with Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), analyzes the data underlying the EV market in our six-state region from July 2023 to June 2024. The data reveals continued growth trends in manufacturing investments, anticipated jobs, EV sales, charging infrastructure deployment, and public funding. 

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The data and analysis in this report provide a holistic factual view of an EV market on the cusp of exponential growth, poised to transform how our nation moves people, goods, and services. Here in the Southeast, this market transformation is spurring record-setting economic development, building manufacturing capacity, and creating jobs and workforce training programs.

Jobs & Investments

The Southeast is leading the nation in EV and battery-related jobs and private sector investments. As of the end of Q2 2024, the fifth annual “Transportation Electrification in the Southeast” report finds that our region is home to 73,908 anticipated manufacturing jobs supported by $78.2 billion in industry investments. This means the Southeast is home to a whopping 31% of the  238,000 EV and battery-related manufacturing jobs announced nationwide.

Four of the nation’s top eight EV manufacturing investment states are in the Southeast: Georgia leads the pack, followed by North Carolina, Tennessee, and South Carolina. Investments and corresponding jobs in these states are tied to over 100 regional facilities and span minerals processing, battery production and recycling, EV charging, EV assembly, and other EV component manufacturing operations. 

Percentage of Announced Manufacturing Investment by Sector in the Southeast

Inflation Reduction Act’s Positive Impact

Tax incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) support EV and battery manufacturing investments, encouraging domestic and foreign companies to establish EV supply chain operations in the US. In the Southeast, the companies that have disclosed tax incentive-supported manufacturing investments thus far range from battery and battery parts production to vehicle parts like electric motors and structural materials like steel. 

The most significant investment in the region is Toyota’s battery manufacturing facility in Liberty, North Carolina, which has added multiple rounds of investments since it was announced in 2022. The total investment now stands at $13.9 billion and is expected to generate 5,100 jobs when the facility comes online in 2025. The facility will host six production lines supporting Toyota’s plug-in hybrid and pure battery EVs, and will run on 100% renewable energy. 

Hyundai has made the second-largest regional investment at its battery manufacturing and EV assembly plant in Bryan County, Georgia. Hyundai’s initial investment has had a massive ripple effect across the state. Last year, Hyundai and LG announced an additional $2 billion and 400 jobs for their battery joint venture at the plant, and 17 Hyundai suppliers have announced more than $2.7 billion in investments and an anticipated 6,900 jobs across the state.

Additionally, EV tax credits for consumers and fleet operators, also part of the IRA, have supported EV sales growth over the last twelve months. These tax credits provide rebates for eligible consumers purchasing new and used EVs and offer rebates to commercial fleet operators, even those who do not pay taxes, such as state, local, and tribal governments, non-profits, and churches. 

EV Sales & Charging Infrastructure

Southeast light-duty EV sales grew by 42% from Q2 2023 through Q2 2024, outpacing the national average growth rate of 37%. However, the region still trails the average national EV market share, which nearly reached 10% in Q2. States in the Southeast saw progress in their deployment of publicly accessible EV chargers, especially fast charging ports that enable long-distance travel; 1,820 new fast charging ports were added regionally, with Tennessee having the highest growth rate at 61%.

Sales

The fifth annual “Transportation Electrification in the Southeast” report tracks EV sales and market share, which is the percentage of EVs sold relative to all light-duty vehicle sales.  In Q2 2024, the Southeast’s light-duty EV market share was 7.1%, up from 6.1% in Q2 2023. Florida continues to lead the region at 8.9% market share and is home to more than half of all the light-duty EV sales in the Southeast, while Alabama is in last place at 2.7%.

Tesla continues to dominate the light-duty EV market, but recent market growth is attributed to legacy automakers, which continue to ramp up EV research, design, and production. The auto industry is global, and legacy automakers must stay competitive in all markets, not just the US. In 2023, the total number of EVs globally reached 40 million. EVs currently make up nearly one in five new light-duty vehicle purchases worldwide, and they are led by Chinese automakers offering an increasing number of low-cost, high-quality EVs. 

New Light-Duty EV Sales in the Southeast

EV Sales Market Share for Light-Duty Vehicles by State

This year’s report also includes a new section tracking the transition from commercial diesel-powered medium- and heavy-duty vehicles to EVs, such as electric school and transit buses, delivery vans, garbage trucks, and tractor-trailers. Although new medium- and heavy-duty EV sales continue to tick up in the Southeast, they amount to less than one percent of the region’s van, truck, and bus sales at this early market stage. 

Charging

It remains true that more than 80% of EV charging is done at home, where it is convenient, reliable, and affordable. When EV drivers take to the road, they rely on a network of public charging stations along highway corridors and at destinations.  

There are two public light-duty EV charging types: slower Level 2 chargers and high-powered Direct Current Fast Chargers (DCFC). Fast chargers are getting the most attention thanks to the allocation of $5 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). BIL’s National EV Infrastructure (NEVI) program funds states to deploy DCFC along major highways to enable cross-country EV mobility.

Though Southeast states’ total number of public EV charging ports still lags behind national state averages, for the first time since this report has tracked charging deployment, three states—Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee—have a DCFC port per capita count higher than the national average. The total number of regional DCFC ports stood at 6,495 at the end of Q2 2024, a 39% year-over-year increase. 

Cumulative DCFC Ports per 1,000 People

There was also meaningful growth in public Level 2 charger deployment in the region. Southeast states increased the number of publicly available Level 2 ports to 17,458, representing a 29% year-over-year growth, with North Carolina leading at 44%, followed by Florida at 31% and South Carolina at 29%.

Meanwhile, on the medium-heavy-duty vehicle front, federal agencies partnered to establish the first-ever National Zero-Emissions Freight Corridor Strategy to accelerate the deployment of EV charging and hydrogen fueling freight infrastructure along critical corridors and hubs in four phases. States in the Southeast have been selected as the location for 25 of the more than 200 hubs in the first two phases. 

Utility & Public Funding

Nationally and in the Southeast, utilities and state governments continue to play central roles in the EV transition, but regional investments and funding need to catch up, given the correlation between the strength of state EV markets and the amount of utility and public sector engagement. 

Utility Investment

The Southeast is home to some of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric utility companies (IOUs). The region’s IOUs are regulated monopolies overseen by state utility commissions, who approve all spending, including on EV programs. Nationwide, utilities play a critical role in accelerating EV adoption through direct investments in charging infrastructure, charger and vehicle rebates, EV-favorable electricity rates, and other programs that balance adoption with the need to manage the electricity grid effectively as more EVs plug in. 

Through Q2 2024, IOUs nationwide have been approved for $6.6 billion in transportation electrification investments, an increase of 10% year-over-year. An additional $1.2 billion in investments are awaiting approval from state utility regulators. Meanwhile, the Southeast represents just 6% of all approved EV investments, which is striking when compared to the region capturing nearly one-third of EV manufacturing investments and jobs. 

Two things have conspired to create an underinvested region: 1) utilities are not proposing supportive EV programs at the scale needed to support the transition, choosing instead to propose small pilot programs, and 2) when proposals are made, regulators have tended to require utilities to scale back the investment to get approval. The result is that on a per capita basis, all of the Southeast’s IOUs are below the national average of $38 per customer in approved EV investments, with Duke Energy South Carolina at the bottom of the list at $2 per customer, Tampa Electric Company at $3, and Duke Energy North Carolina at $6. 

Public Funding

The region is far below national averages for state-allocated electric transportation funding; the national average is $29.85 per capita, while the Southeast average is $3.91 per capita. With such low state funding levels, the region relies on federal dollars that state agencies and local governments often administer.

Hence, the two significant public funding stories over the past twelve months resulted from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The first is the $5 billion NEVI program, which provides states with a funding windfall to deploy DCFC along major highways. 

The graph below puts NEVI’s public funding impact in perspective. It shows the amount of funding allocated to each state based on population. It is up to the states to create a plan and deploy the resources. Though every state in the Southeast has submitted its NEVI Plan, only Tennessee and Georgia have awarded contracts. At the same time, North Carolina and Alabama have launched bidding processes, and South Carolina has wrapped up its stakeholder engagement process. Florida, the largest recipient of funds, is sitting on its money for political reasons.

Public Funding for EV Charging ($ millions)

The second is the EPA’s $5 billion Clean School Bus Program, which provides grants and rebates for school districts that purchase zero-emission buses. To date, the Southeast has been awarded nearly $405 million in grants and rebates, enabling the purchase of 1,195 electric school buses across the region.  

Electric School Buses Purchased with EPA’s Clean School Bus Funding

An Eye on the Road Ahead

Policymakers and regulators are likely to take center stage in the coming years. The fifth annual “Transportation Electrification in the Southeast” report delves into Southeast policymakers’ history of stalling supportive EV policies and enabling EV adoption roadblocks. 

Given the region’s EV-related economic development and job creation stakes, it is in our best interest to get more electric cars, trucks, and buses on the roads to support the product sales of the manufacturers and supply chain businesses investing and setting up shops in our states. Companies like Toyota, Hyundai, Ford, Volkswagen, BMW, Volvo, and others are making historic investments; and it will be interesting to see how these companies use their new political clout to inform and influence state policies.

Regulators overseeing our region’s IOUs also need to consider the next level of utility planning and investment required to support light-, medium- and heavy-duty EV adoption to ensure a rapid increase in transportation electrification is managed to enhance the electrical grid’s performance and benefit ratepayers. 

On the light-duty front, recent surveys by Cox Automotive, Consumer Reports, and J.D. Power show that, depending on how you slice the data, between 45% and 70% of consumers are considering buying a new EV, with upwards of a third seriously considering an EV for their next car.

Couple that with commercial fleet operators and investors like Amazon adopting electric delivery vans, PepsiCo, Maersk, Microsoft, and others teaming up to electrify Interstate 10 for tractor-trailers, and Nextera Energy, Daimler Trucks North America, and BlackRock partnering to build a national network of heavy-duty charging stations, and a possible scenario emerges whereby near-term EV demand takes off, catching Southeast IOUs flat-footed—a scenario that could lead to charging infrastructure bottlenecks, grid reliability issues, and increased costs to ratepayers. 

EV technology and consumer adoption have reached the point where the question is not if the market will transition away from gas and diesel, but when. States in the Southeast are positioning themselves to reap the economic development and job benefits of the global transition. By taking full advantage of federal funding and leveraging market-supporting policy and regulatory opportunities, states can bring those benefits home to local businesses, consumers, and fleet operators, keeping investments and jobs growing, lowering transportation costs, reducing air pollution that makes people sick, and addressing the transportation sector’s outsized contribution to climate change. 

SACE’s Electrify the South program leverages research, advocacy, and outreach to accelerate the equitable transition to electric transportation across the Southeast. Visit ElectrifytheSouth.org to learn more and connect with us.  

The post Think Electric Vehicles are Slowing Down in the Southeast? New Report Shows Otherwise appeared first on SACE | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Think Electric Vehicles are Slowing Down in the Southeast? New Report Shows Otherwise