Electric vehicles surging in the South: How car sales, jobs, investments are driving momentum

Electric vehicles surging in the South: How car sales, jobs, investments are driving momentum

Andrew J. Yawn

The American South

Feb. 21, 2022Updated Feb. 23, 2022, 11:43 a.m. CT

School buses ordinarily demand to be noticed. If the deep rumble of a diesel engine doesn't get your attention, perhaps the heavy stench of exhaust will.

When Jarrod Adams first took a seat on Washington County, Tennessee's newest school bus last year, he was struck by a new sensation.

Silence.

"It's very quiet," said Adams, the Washington County Schools chief operations officer. "And there are no fumes. It's just really a different experience."

Last year, Adams' district became the first school system in the state to put an all-electric school bus on the road.

The bus accelerates swiftly and smoothly along its 30-mile route as it fetches students from the hilly, country roads outside Jonesborough, Tennessee. It's so silent, a jingle was programmed to play when the bus slows to below 15 mph to alert pedestrians to its presence. Adams said children were amazed that they no longer have to scream across the aisle to chat with their friends.

He said he's just pleased the district is working toward turning their big yellow buses green.

"I'm passionate about doing what we can to fight climate change," Adams said. "We're viewing it as an opportunity to lead the way not only for other school systems, but also our community to go as electric as we can."

One electric school bus will not offset the emissions of Jonesborough's 65 diesel buses.

But Washington County Schools' embrace of the new technology is symbolic of a larger trend across the South: Electric vehicles are coming. And as Adams has learned firsthand, they move pretty fast.

"You barely tap it, and it takes off," Adams said with a laugh.

EVs taking off in region

The South saw more electric vehicles (EVs) purchased in 2021 than the two previous years combined, according to a report by Atlas Public Policy and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. (The report defined the South region as Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.)

With the exception of Florida and Georgia, those states still lag behind many in total electric vehicle registrations and charging stations.

But the boom is encouraging, considering the region's relatively recent investments into electric vehicle infrastructure, said Tom Taylor, a policy analyst for Atlas Public Policy who authored the report.

"You see really significant growth across the Southeast," Taylor said. "Whether it's EV sales or charging deployment, there's a really strong trendline upwards, which is exciting for EV adoption."

Only 14% of the nation's charging stations — approximately 15,000 chargers — are in the South region, according to the report. But that's up by 57% over the past year.

Federal funding from the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is expected to help boost those numbers. Southern states are slated to receive approximately $100 million in funding for charging infrastructure in 2022, Taylor said.

"That is just an unprecedented infusion of cash into the region," Taylor said. "It's really exciting to see how this could change the game in the region and build out a strong network of public charging infrastructure."

Transitioning to electric vehicles has been a priority of President Joe Biden's administration. An August 2021 executive order issued by Biden set a goal for 50% of all cars sold to be zero-emissions vehicles by 2030. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act earmarked about $50 billion for electric vehicle investments. The bill also scheduled $5 billion to go toward the purchase of electric school buses.

"With the infrastructure monies coming out from the federal government, we want to be on the front end of that," Adams said. "Our goal is to use any access to those monies that we get to buy more electric school buses."

Good for the environment…and the economy?

It's easy to understand the fervent push toward electric vehicles. Transportation accounts for the largest portion of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions at 29%, according to 2019 EPA data. And while emissions from the energy grid declined between 1990 and 2019, vehicle emissions increased by more than 22% in that time, the EPA said.

A 2020 report from the American Lung Association projected Southern states could save $11 billion in health care costs if the nation fully adopts electric vehicles by 2050.

While the environmental and health care impacts remain to be seen, the South seems poised to reap immediate economic benefits from a spike in demand for electric vehicles.

Southern states that, in recent decades, attracted numerous automotive plants are now being targeted for electric vehicle and charger manufacturing plants.

Ford announced a new $5.6 billion plant near Memphis to build its new all-electric F-series trucks. Hyundai said it will begin manufacturing electric vehicles at its Montgomery, Alabama, plant. And electric car company Rivian unveiled plans for a $5 billion assembly and battery manufacturing facility near Atlanta.

Tennessee has led the way in EV manufacturing in the South. Nissan Leafs are produced in Smyrna. Volkswagen announced last year that its Chattanooga plant would transition to producing electric vehicles. General Motors is working toward opening an EV battery factory in Spring Hill by 2023.

Most recently, a Tritium fast charger manufacturing facility was announced in Lebanon, Tennessee. And in February, Nissan revealed it would invest $500 million to build its new line of electric vehicles at a plant in Canton, Mississippi, a move that is expected to preserve 2,000 jobs.

Of the 71,000 newly announced jobs in electric vehicle manufacturing, 33% are located in the South, Taylor said.

"There's a lot of momentum in the region," Taylor said. "Maybe the South is starting a little behind the rest of the country, but they're showing really strong growth across the board. There are a lot of positive stories to tell."

Preparing for the future

South Carolina has the second fewest charging stations in the South and the 12th fewest electric vehicles of any state in the nation. Still, the state saw a 47% increase in electric vehicle purchases in the last year, the second highest in the Southern states outlined in the report behind Florida.

Laine Mears is one of those new owners.

Mears worked in vehicle manufacturing for 10 years before he began teaching the trade to others. Now the chair of Clemson University's Automotive Engineering Department, Mears saw the chance to purchase his Tesla Model Y as a sort of experiment. Call it a test drive.

"I wanted to find out for myself how hard it is to charge your car at your house or on the road," Mears said.

For the most part, he charges his Tesla Model Y at home, which has added "a marginal amount" to his monthly power bill, he said. And while plugging in on the road can take 20 minutes instead of the 5 minutes it took to fill up his gas tank, Mears said he'll often use that time to walk and buy a coffee.

"Even in South Carolina where chargers are few and far between, we still have enough to keep us going," Mears said. "But if every car became an electric car, there's no way that we can handle it both from the availability of charging stations as well as electrical generation."

If electric vehicle sales in the South continue to rise as more models are manufactured in the region — potentially offering more options and lower prices, Mears said — the region's charging infrastructure must be able to meet demand.

Across the South, there are signs that both state governments and private companies are willing to commit to a transition to electric vehicles.

In Tennessee, the Department of Environment and Conservation and the Tennessee Valley Authority are working to install chargers every 50 miles along the state's interest and major highways.

Southern state energy offices have also created the Southeast Regional EV Information Exchange, which meets bi monthly to collaborate across state lines on the rollout of electric vehicle-supporting infrastructure. Last year, SEREVI launched an online map of all charging stations in the South that includes welcome centers, national and state parks and hurricane routes.

"We just wanted to create something that could foster that sense of collaboration and work towards a common goal on a more regional level instead of individually state by state," said Mark Finlay, an energy analyst for TDEC who helped create the mapping tool.

The map also includes what Finlay calls "equity layers" that allow users to see the charging stations -- or lack thereof -- in areas with high poverty, vulnerable age populations and areas with poor air quality.

"Having those more vulnerable populations have access to this type of infrastructure and these types of opportunities is important," Finlay said.

In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey launched a campaign promoting electric vehicles in November. Months earlier, she designated $4.1 million to be used to build car chargers along Alabama highways.

The funds came from Volkswagen's emissions settlement, which was paid out to states after Volkswagen was accused of cheating on its emission testing. As of 2021, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Tennessee have been allocated $427 million in settlement funds, according to the Atlas Public Policy report. Approximately $170 million of that has been dedicated to specific projects with 55% of those funds going toward electrical vehicle and electric vehicle charging investments.

Between the recent uptick in electric vehicle initiatives, the EV manufacturing investments and the expected federal funding, the South "really has the opportunity to be in the very center of the transportation electrification world," Finlay said.

"But what it really takes in the end is buy-in from the people that we're trying to serve," he said.

The cost of going green

In addition to the lack of charging options in some areas, the initial cost of a electric vehicles is one of the primary obstacles for those considering buying an electric vehicle, Taylor said.

An electric vehicle could potentially have cheaper fuel and maintenance costs than a gasoline-powered counterpart over the life of the vehicle, according to another Atlas Public Policy analysis.

But for many residents and agencies, the upfront costs can be too steep.

Entry-level electric vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf start at $30,000, according to Edmunds.com. At the end of last year, the average price paid for an electric vehicle was $56,000, according to Kelley Blue Book.

At Williams County Schools, a diesel bus costs about $90,000. An electric school bus costs $400,000, Adams said. The school district qualified to have half of the amount paid for with Volkswagen settlement funds but had to obtain other grants as well.

"Half of $400,000 is still twice the cost of one bus," Adams said.

While Mears bought his Tesla as a personal experiment, the automotive engineering professor also sees how electric vehicles could be conducive to less expensive manufacturing costs down the line.

"There are fewer parts that go into an EV, and the process is amenable to automation," Mears said. "In the build process, you could have fewer mistakes, fewer recalls, and you're going to see a lot lower cost."

Mears said his department is discussing how to add electric vehicle manufacturing to the curriculum.

"We're going to need to make sure that the education keeps up with the technology," Mears said. "Things are changing quickly and we have to keep up."

That's one of the final obstacles to growing public acceptance of electric vehicles, Taylor said.

Familiarity is another.

The South is stereotypically truck-loving region, but it's a stereotype supported by data. The Ford F-series is the top-selling vehicle in Tennessee, Georgia and the Carolinas, according to Edmunds.com. It's the second-highest selling vehicle in Alabama behind the Chevy Silverado.

With the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning and Chevy Silverado expected to debut in 2022 and 2023, respectively, Taylor said he expects to see more pickups being plugged in than filled up in coming years.

"Given the popularity of the truck in the southeast, it will be interesting to see how that will shift the uptake of electric vehicles," Taylor said. "There's significant growth to come."