Blog > Energy > Electric Vehicle Trends for Drive Electric Week

Happy National Drive Electric Week!

In honor of National Drive Electric Week 2020, I thought it would be a great time to follow-up on part one of my posts about electric vehicles (EV). In this blog, we’ll look at emerging electric vehicle trends, providing a timely update about driving electric and the incentives available to support electric vehicles and charging station infrastructure. 

Electric Vehicle Trends in the Northeast

New York and the states in New England have all set electric vehicle adoption goals by the year 2025: 

• New York – 851,855
• Connecticut – 155,105
• Maine – 50,906
• Massachusetts – 303,814
• New Hampshire – 78,763
• Rhode Island – 43,596
• Vermont – 34,898

Through the end of Q1 2020, the registered electric vehicles per state have trended as follows (source: IHS/Polk):

• New York – 53,273 / 6.25% to goal
• Connecticut – 12,944 / 8.35% to goal
• Maine – 3,765 / 7.39% to goal
• Massachusetts – 30,575 / 10.06% to goal
• New Hampshire – 4,211 / 5.35% to goal
• Rhode Island – 2,465 / 5.65% to goal
• Vermont – 3,802 / 10.89% to goal

As you can see, the states have a long way to go over the next five years to build out EV charging infrastructure and encourage EV adoption to reach these goals.

Less Economic Impact on the EV Market

The bad news is that light-duty vehicle sales are down 23% due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One bright spot is that plugin vehicle sales have only seen a sales drop of 15% over this same timeframe, so electric vehicle adoption is continuing in light of the virus (source: Valuation Services group at J.D. Power). This positive 8% difference points to the following electric vehicle trends that are supporting EV adoption.

Lower Battery Prices

The price of electric vehicles continues to decrease, while the electric ranges of plugin hybrid vehicles and battery electric vehicles continue to increase. This is due to the price of lithium-ion batteries coming down.