Through Tesla’s headlights — one of the world’s largest automakers, whose billionaire founder, Elon Musk, can’t seem to stay out of controversy — the electric vehicle market doesn’t look so hot. The company’s stratospheric growth has been brought back to earth by foreign competition, expensive lawsuits and C-suite departures, all playing into slumping sales and recently announced plans to slash its global workforce by 10%.
Yet, the giant’s setbacks notwithstanding, longer trends across the EV market appear robust, and with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of federal and state incentives in the pipeline, the industry is set to pick up cruising speed.
Electric vehicle sales have more than quadrupled since 2020, putting four and a half million EVs on the road. In 2023, nationwide EV sales represented 9.5% of new light-duty vehicle sales, up from 7% in 2022 and 4.3% in 2021, according to industry group Alliance for Automotive Innovation.
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In Wyoming, however, battery vehicles are riding the brakes.
The market share of new EV sales in the Cowboy State was 2.1% in 2023. And though that figure is up from 1.9% in 2022, battery vehicle growth here is amongst the slowest nationwide. This is partly a reflection of the state’s unique driving needs, where small and scattered communities give a whole new meaning to “range anxiety.”
But that could soon change.
State leaders this month successfully negotiated new terms with the federal government over the conditions of its National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, which could bring $26 million in new charging station infrastructure to Wyoming’s roadways. State officials initially rejected the program, citing unworkable stipulations like the requirement that chargers be placed every 50 miles, and the risk that failed stations may leave Wyoming responsible for paying back grants.
“Just looking at the volume of electric vehicle travelers throughout the state currently and looking at the next five years, it was concerning to me that the program would fail. If it’s successful, great, it goes on and we help the industry out. But I needed that reassurance” that the state isn’t on the hook for failed stations,” said Director of the Wyoming Department of Transportation, Darin Westby.
WYDOT, which will administer the program, has reached a compromise with the Federal Highway Administration and is now on the verge of issuing its first request for proposal to lure private entities into constructing charging stations on Wyoming corridors, with 80% of costs underwritten by feds and the remainder picked up by contracted companies.
Westby says state officials have so far identified seven viable locations along I-80 and I-25, with more likely to follow. Currently, electric charging stations along I-80 are limited to Pine Bluffs, Cheyenne, Laramie, Rawlins, Rock Springs and Evanston. Along I-25, chargers can be found in Cheyenne, Wheatland, Douglas, Casper, Buffalo and Sheridan.
It’s the latest in the touch-and-go politics around electric vehicles in Wyoming, which are complicated by enmeshment with federal climate policy.
For instance, the FHA in January issued a rule requiring state transportation departments to begin collecting data on tailpipe emissions and establish corresponding reduction targets. Wyoming leaders say the rule unfairly impacts drivers in rural states.
“For far too long, this administration has unfairly forced its one-size-fits-all emissions standards on the people of Wyoming with no regard for the impact they have on our western way of life,” said Senator Cynthia Lummis, who joined Senator John Barrasso in a joint resolution of disapproval of the rule that passed the Senate 53-47 last week.
Wyoming has joined with 21 other states in a lawsuit to overturn the rule.
Are EVs paying road taxes?
Though the rule has no prescribed penalties or enforcement actions, local officials balk that it adds bureaucratic overhead at a time when revenue is barely sufficient to meet current administrative needs.
“The concern is that we’re already understaffed at the agency, and if I have to pull resources and people then other needs won’t get done. So is it truly achieving anything, or is it setting a baseline for future enforcement?” Westby said.
Here Westby alludes to another looming challenge with electric vehicles: With a large portion of the state’s transportation budget funded by taxes on gasoline — which electric car drivers don’t pay — as the EV market grows, drivers of petroleum-powered vehicles will shoulder disproportionate taxation. That could in turn cause revenue for road construction, which is already in decline, to fall further. Drivers of electric vehicles do pay added registration fees that help support WYDOT, but that doesn’t address the problem, administrators say.
“The cost of maintaining roads has gone up over the course of time and our buying power and the amount of miles that we can maintain on an annual basis is going down,” said Westby. “Right now all we’re doing is preserving. But at some point we need to start expanding and get ahead of growth because the size of [transportation] growth is astronomical,” he said, citing areas of the state’s southwest and southeast, respectively.
A legislative effort to establish EV charging taxes, however, was killed during the latest budget session, a failure Westby believes has more to do with the politicization of the topic than it does the bill’s fundamental merits.
EV politics showed up elsewhere in a bill by state senator Jim Anderson, R-28, which attracted national attention for its attempt to eliminate the sale of new EVs in Wyoming after 2035. Anderson described the move as a messaging resolution meant to counter a California state law outlawing new internal combustion vehicle sales after 2035.
The bill failed, but Anderson intends to bring it back with softer language that would focus on preempting penalties on gas-powered vehicles that he says could theoretically be imposed by feds.
“The present administration has tried to push EVs down the public throat, and they’ve done it by making an incentive to buy them. This makes sure the federal government can’t force us to buy electric vehicles and leaves the market open for all vehicles,” Anderson told the Star-Tribune.
Tourism
Irrespective of the NEVI program’s stated goals of minimizing emissions and diversifying consumer choice, policy experts say charging infrastructure is increasingly needed for the tourism and outdoor recreation economy, which is the second largest economy in Wyoming and vital jobs driver. As greater numbers of visitors are expected to arrive in EVs, a lack of viable charging infrastructure could translate to tourism dollars being spent elsewhere.
“If we don’t have a safe and effective visitor distribution system for tourism and tourism and our number two revenue stream and industry within the state can’t get their visitors where they want them to go, we’re gonna see a decrease in revenue streams and quality of life,” said Westby.
— Energy and Environment reporter Zak Sonntag can be reached at 801-232-7123 or zakary.sonntag@trib.com.