Every year, MDOT and MPCA put out the latest numbers for electric vehicle registrations in Minnesota and I get overly excited.

I find this data particularly interesting, because it helps to paint a picture that can easily be overlooked: Rochester area electric vehicle adoption is growing.

Rochester Area EV Growth

In 2021 Olmsted County reached 731 electric vehicles.

When you consider that this is 5x as many EVs as when our family got our first electric vehicle in 2018, that’s pretty incredible!

I think that having a visual of where we’ve been can tell an interesting story about where we might be going in the future.

The good people at MPCA shared EV data from past years for our area so I’d like to introduce the Olmsted County Electric Vehicles Growth Chart. We’ll update this as new data becomes available.

A few thoughts come to mind as I look at this chart.

While some people are choosing to have the gas backup with plug-in hybrids (PHEV), it’s interesting to see even more people are opting for fully electric vehicles (Also known as Battery Electric Vehicles or BEVs). Tesla and it’s superb charging network are making this possible, but more manufacturers are creating EVs with longer range too, and the number of fast chargers continues to grow.

1000 EVs by the end of 2022 feels like a real possibility (and a good goal to set next).

These numbers indicate that our efforts at Rochester Electric Vehicles are paying off. In 2021 we were able to do more electric car display events thanks to the help of local EV owners and sellers. We helped more people see EVs up close, talk with current owners, understand the basics, and feel confident in driving electric. We’ve had multiple cases of people buying their first EV shortly after an event or even at the event.

Things are falling into place for an upward turn in EV adoption. Just look back at the introduction of…cars

A common comment for EVs is that it’s only a small portion of the total market. While that’s true in the US (for now), we can once again look back at the past to give us an indication of where we might be going in the future.

This graph shows the adoption of new technology and one interesting line is the adoption of gas cars (Under AUTO below).

Source: Harvard Business Review

Gas cars have been around for so long that we just call them…cars. But there was a time that gas cars were a new concept, so what factors played a part in increased adoption?

In 1908 the Model T was introduced, and you can see a small rise in adoption.

After the Model T was launched, more vehicle options became available and improved options were added.

During the early days, people had to go to grocery or hardware stores to buy barrels of gas and store them at home.

In 1913, the first drive-in gas stations were opened and by 1929 there were 121,513 filling stations.

Now look at the rise in adoption about 1915:

1) People started seeing more of their friends and family driving cars
2) More vehicle options became available
3) More fueling stations were available making long-range driving possible

Obviously there’s more factors than this, but without these, wide scale adoption wouldn’t be easy or likely.

Then depressions and wars really put a damper on things for a while, but that’s beside the point.

Fast Forward To EV Adoption Today

While the total amount of EVs at this moment may seem modest, each year we see momentum continue and more pieces falling into place (and the story looks familiar).

1) People are seeing more of their friends and family driving electric vehicles
2) More vehicle options are becoming available each year
3) Home fueling makes local driving convenient and a growing number of charging stations makes long-distance driving possible.

Final Thoughts

I read something once that said, “The way technology works is that by default, it stands still, and it moves forward only when something pushes it forward.”

I like to think that this concept applies to change in general. Change doesn’t happen unless someone or something pushes it forward. Rochester Electric Vehicles will continue pushing forward to help more people feel comfortable making the switch to electric.

1000+ EVs in the Rochester area, here we come!

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Source data from MDOT & MPCA