EVs and rural America: These two subjects may seem unrelated unless you are a farmer in Ohio. My wife, Deb, grew up in Columbus, Ohio. I spent my first twelve years in Ogden, Utah. We met in our mid-thirties and are eighteen days apart in age. Both December babies. What do we know about rural America?
How do you define rural? I wrote and taught a management class focused on small town USA. One common definition of rural America is an open countryside and settlements with fewer than 5,000 residents and 2,000 housing units. This definition is based on the 2020 census and was released in 2022. I defined it as “any place where the closest new car dealership is over one and a half hours or 100 miles or more away.” If you own a vehicle in those places, you most likely get it serviced at an independent shop. About 20% of the U.S. population, or roughly 66 million people, live in rural areas, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It is hard to lump everyone into a group as it over-simplifies the subject. There is a lot of grey in the area of where people live.
It is no secret that a new electric car can get 300 miles of range on one charge — if you are not going over 70 mph, if it is not snowing, and if the outside temperature is over 40 degrees Fahrenheit. It also assumes that in cold climates, the EV uses a heat pump and you are not towing a trailer. To buy an EV with those features, it will cost you about $40,000 with no incentives. The average new car price in the U.S. in 2024 was around $48,000. For comparison, a 2024 Honda Civic EX had a price of about $24,000. Pickup trucks and large SUVs — gas, diesel, or electric — are in another world.
Cost is a factor in most purchase decisions. We just added another 4,000 sq. ft. of shop space, including a lift, tools, tool boxes, more scopes, etc. The new $30,000 heat pump system and more insulation has a five-year payback. It was well worth the investment.
We will take the 2025 Chevrolet Equinox EV as an example of an EV. It sells from $35,000 to $45,000. How does that EV fit into rural America? We all understand miles per gallon, but what about kilowatts (kW) per mile?
Here are the specifications on the Equinox EV. It is larger than most EVs. The Equinox base model is front-wheel-drive, has a single-motor with 220 horsepower and 243 lb-ft of torque. The 85-kWh battery pack gets 319 miles on a full charge. The dual-motor, AWD model loses 12 miles of range and costs about $40,000. All models have heat pumps to warm the cabin.
The Greening of the Grid
The older an internal combustion vehicle gets, the more pollution it creates. The older an EV is, the cleaner it becomes. Why? Engines wear out, emission control devices fail and catalytic converters become less effective as oil gets past the rings. The electric grid gets greener every year.
Utah’s Grid: Utah’s energy sector has reduced the use of coal dramatically by diversifying the structure of Utah’s electrical grid. Since 2000, renewable energy contributions have increased from 3 percent to 17 percent and natural gas contributions have increased from 3 percent to 36 percent, whereas coal’s contribution has decreased from 94 percent to 47 percent. Their grid is much cleaner now than it was when the first Tesla was sold in 2008. The latest numbers are from 2023.
Ohio’s Grid: Ohio's electricity generation relies on a mix of sources, with natural gas being the primary fuel, followed by coal and nuclear power, with growing contributions from renewable sources like wind and solar. While natural gas fuels the largest share of Ohio's electricity generation, coal remains a significant source, though its share has decreased. Ohio has two nuclear power plants that contribute a notable portion of the state's electricity. Ohio increasingly relies on renewable sources like wind and solar, with wind energy accounting for a significant portion of renewable energy production. Minor sources are petroleum and hydroelectric power. Renewable resources have been redefined over the years. Some states include biomass and nuclear as renewable (like Ohio), while others do not. Here's a look at the percentages each energy sector contributes to electricity production in Ohio: Natural gas generates about 46 percent, 24 percent comes from coal, and nuclear power represents 18 percent. Oil generates about 3 percent, and the rest (9 percent) represents hydropower, wind turbines, photovoltaic cells on solar panels, and biomass energy resources. That includes wood and wood wastes, landfill gas, biogas from food processing waste, animal waste, sewage sludge, and limited energy crops. These are 2023 numbers. (As a point of comparison, in 2013, coal fueled 69 percent of the state's electrical energy.)
Will Renewable Energy Be Good for the Future?
Remember replacing some expensive equipment or a trusted tool in your tool box as the automobiles showed up with new technology. I still have my red timing light, analog meter, and special tools for some early Hondas. Do I use them? No, but I know where they are, just in case. This type of thinking keeps the memories alive of bygone days. Most of my days at work are spent keeping up with the latest technology that went on sale recently in electric vehicles. My latest two projects are hosting a radio show about all things that move us using electric motors and a fourth book about heavy duty electric trucks and buses. Every change in technology makes something else obsolete.
Living and working in Massachusetts since I was a teenager has allowed me to watch the electric grid build and then shut down two nuclear power plants. We no longer use coal as the state's last operational coal-fired plant, Brayton Point in Somerset, permanently shut down in June 2017. Both failed because of economics. Like many other states, we rely on natural gas, but the real money is being spent on solar and wind. From 2013-2023, solar and wind generation in Massachusetts grew by over 400%, with most of that growth coming from solar.
Long Distance Driving
So far I have made the case for change and renewable energy. Now we will discuss long distance travel. When we talk about rural living, the only barrier is the time it takes to recharge and the lack of reliable DC fast chargers. If I was asked to speak about this three years ago, this subject would have been all about Tesla as the only good choice. Today, Tesla’s DC charging system is the best. The hardware is good, the software is very good, but what makes the NACS (North American Charging Standard) work so well is the uptime. As the owner and lead tech at ACDC, an EV technician training company, a Model 3 Tesla was added to our fleet about three years ago when Elon Musk realized his service centers could not keep up with the work load.
I have driven over 100,000 electric miles since ACDC started to acquire plug-in vehicles. First up was a new 2011 Chevy Volt, then a used 2011 Nissan Leaf. ACDC leased a 2017 Chevy Bolt for three years and bought a new 2019 Kia Niro EV. A couple electric two wheelers (I started my career as a motorcycle mechanic) were purchased — a 2014 Vectrix and a 2020 Zero SR/F. The Tesla has racked up the most miles for one reason. I can drive long distances to places I have never been and know I will get there on time.
Tesla Superchargers
Tesla’s Supercharger system is widespread. Supercharger networks began in 2012 and was a key part of the reason Tesla sold the original Model S to the well off. The Supercharger was faster, easier, more reliable than any other brand and still is today. In the summer of 2023, General Motors and Ford announced agreements with Tesla to allow those brands’ EVs to charge at Tesla Superchargers, and soon after that most automakers followed suit. The Tesla Supercharger network has more than 27,000 individual Superchargers in the United States. There are Supercharger stations in all 50 states and Puerto Rico and more are planned. If you look at Tesla’s U.S. Supercharger map, you’ll see that though stations are widespread, Tesla wanted to ensure owners can charge on road trips. As a side note, Massachusetts increased the number of electric vehicle charging ports to 7,032 in 2023, ranking the Bay State fifth in the nation.
EV Owners in Rural Areas
So where does this leave car owners in what I define as rural areas? If you are a technician or shop owner in a small town, your customers want you to fix whatever they buy and some will buy an EV. It will not be their only vehicle. Most charging is done at home and with 300 miles of range it will fit many of their trips. The used EV market is great right now, and a plug-in hybrid does not need a charger. With Tesla opening up their network as you read this, the biggest barrier is going away. The charging times have not gone down much and that is a technical issue with the chemistry of the lithium-based cells. That will be fixed by engineers. Until we have a solid-state cell that can be mass produced at scale for the same cost as what we use today, there will be a limit to making DC fast charging faster. If you up the voltage to 800 DC volts, as some OEMs have done, mostly Porsche, Kia, and Lucid, you will charge faster. The vast majority of DC fast chargers, including Tesla (NACS) are still at 400 volts DC. That is a hurdle that has no short-term solution.
Why Are Your Customers Choosing an EV?
Ask them. Try not to judge them as they explain their thinking. It was an expensive car and they have their reasons. I chose a career by specializing in one vehicle make from high school until I was in my mid-50s. That was Honda. My decisions are based on logic and reasons, facts, and economics. The decisions you make today, will set in place your future.
If I wait long enough, will EVs go away? No and you know that. Sure, gasoline- and diesel-driven vehicles have a place right now. They are cheaper to buy, but more expensive to operate. The track record of EVs is a whole lot better than hybrids were the first ten years, in terms of HV battery issues and cost to drive. EVs in most rural areas can be charged at home overnight for the cost of a kilo-watt hour. The fuel costs can be 50 percent less than gasoline per mile or more. You can even make your own fuel. Many Iowa farmers are generating their own electricity through wind and solar power, with some even installing wind turbines to offset farm losses and generate income, while others are embracing solar power and selling excess energy. I have worked for John Deere as a consultant for well over 15 years and spent many weeks in Waterloo. John Deere acquired a majority stake in Kreisel in early 2022 and has used that investment to increase battery production and improve technology.
It is just a matter of time until battery storage and renewable energy make more inroads into a fossil fuel powered world. If your shop gets in early, the learning curve is not as steep as waiting. The added benefit is that people will know your shop as the “go to place,“ before your competition decides to go after that same EV market.
