The challenges facing car makers to convince buyers to go electric has been highlighted by new figures for the USA released by J.D. Power. It has identified a major variation between city seaboard states and more rural areas.
In 2035 J.D. Power estimates that 94% of cars sold in California will be electric, but by contrast the rural sate of North Dakota will only see EV sales approaching 20%.
Currently across the USA around 1 in 5 drivers are choosing to go electric where a suitable option is available. California, Washington, Hawaii, Oregon, and Nevada lead the way in EV sales, while EV sales market share is actually dropping in Michigan, Iowa, Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Wyoming, Louisiana, South Dakota, West Virginia, and North Dakota. This perhaps reflects how US charging infrastructure tends to be concentrated in only a few states.
However, equally the love of gas guzzling pick-up trucks in the rural heartlands of America will be a hard habit to break.