Jacksonville car dealers discuss infrastructure, incentives needed to accelerate EV growth (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — It was a bumpy road for electric vehicles over the past year, with the industry seeing increased adoption — but not as quickly as manufacturers had hoped.
Jacksonville adoption of the technology is slightly below the national average, with about 2,400 electric vehicles registered in Duval County in 2023.
The path to growing the market requires improving the infrastructure for charging the vehicles and expanding access to incentives for buyers, local car dealers said this week during a panel discussion arranged by the North Florida TPO to discuss the issue.
The TPO is the regional transportation planning agency for Duval, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties, overseeing roadway projects that receive federal grants.
United States EV sales are on the rise, soaring 60% year over year from 1 million in 2022 to 1.6 million in 2023, according to MarketWatch.
Numbers in Jacksonville are almost on par with the rest of the U.S., said Brian Bush, vice president of the Tom Bush Family of Dealerships.
The EV share of auto-sales from Jacksonville dealerships were 7.4% in 2023, Bush said. Meanwhile, the EV share of the total U.S. market was 7.6%, according to Cox Automotive.
“We’re right there,” Bush said. “So, I think there is local appetite.”
Getting that number to increase will require investment by both the industry and government, the dealers said.
Building up infrastructure
Doug Sovich, the director of Commercial Vehicle Solutions for the Scott-McRae Automotive Group said during the panel he thinks that electric vehicles are here to stay, but the market will take more time to grow as more infrastructure to support the vehicles is needed.
“I just think it’ll be a little bit slower than the original targets,” Sovich said. “A lot of the manufacturers were targeting 2025, 2030. That may be a little bit early, but it’s going to happen. There’s going to be an alternative way to purchase a vehicle or an alternative type of vehicle … I just think the infrastructure is not there.”
The main infrastructure that needs to be improved is charging stations.
Conrad Lynch, director of operations for Key Auto Co, said that while chargers have become more widely available, improving reliability is the main priority he sees toward easing access for EV drivers.
“You go out to some of these more rural areas where there are chargers but there’s just no one, really, to really maintain them and keep them up to speed,” Lynch said.
Public and private money are both going toward improvements, however.
Bush said at the panel that manufacturers are working to launch new networks of charging stations.
IONNA, a conglomerate of seven manufacturers, is launching their charging network this year, Bush said. The conglomerate plans to install 30,000 EV chargers throughout North America.
Shell Recharge and Electrify America charging networks will also help improve infrastructure, Bush said.
Tesla has also made their charging network available to the general public, Lynch said.
Using a standard plug for most EVs by 2025 is also key to growth, Bush said.
“There’s private and there’s public money going into this,” Moore said during the panel. “And it seems like we’re finally getting the investment necessary to solve this issue. And it gives me a lot of confidence going forward or charging out on the road.”
Incentives
As car dealers anticipate big infrastructure changes to support EVs, they said incentives from OEMs, the government and public and private utilities are also important to accelerate infrastructure construction and sales.
Hyundai is incentivizing EV purchases by including free home charging installation, Lynch said, and JEA has rebates for commercial entities that install charging stations on their properties, Bush said.
Receiving incentives from the federal government is a bit more difficult, but there are workarounds, Bush said.
“The main takeaway is the incentives are still here. They’re a little bit harder, and they will continue to be harder to qualify for those wishing to purchase an electric vehicle, or the battery components,” Bush said. “And so the workaround is leasing and so the manufacturers, regardless of those requirements, are able to receive the credit