I first wrote about becoming an EVangelist in my 2016 blog post Electric vehicle EVangelists, spread the word!. Since then, in just a few short years, we have gone from focusing primarily on passenger electric vehicles (EVs) to comprehensive transportation electrification (TE). During this time, utility EV programs and transportation electrification plans have scaled from mainly targeting single-family homes to programs that cater to residential, low-income, multifamily, and commercial customers. And it’s not just about incentives for electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE)—we are now seeing incentives for vehicles, commercial EV rates, smart charging pilots, and programs that are helping make properties “EV ready” or “Charge ready”.

According to the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Electric Vehicle Outlook 2019 estimates, 57% of all passenger vehicle sales, and over 30% of the global passenger vehicle fleet will be electric by 2040.

To put this into perspective, just three years ago we were tracking 48 programs that mainly consisted of EV time-of-use (TOU rates) and residential rebates for EVSE. Now, as we highlight in our recent report Catalog of utility EV pilots and programs (available to members of the E Source Distributed Energy Resource Strategy Service), this has ramped up to 140 programs! (Figure 1)

Figure 1: Map of EV programs by state and province

California, Michigan, Minnesota, and New York have the most utility EV programs.
Map showing which states and provinces have an EV program.

Utility EV programs continue to diversify

What’s most exciting is the diversity of utility EV programs in the market. As the transportation sector continues to be the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, we can make the largest impact by pursuing widespread transportation electrification. During our recent web conference Designing incentives and technology roadmaps for beneficial electrification (available to E Source utility members), my colleague Bryan Jungers offered some advice:

Learn how to accelerate EV market adoption

E Source utility members can register for the EVs won’t sell themselves: What utilities and car dealerships can do to accelerate market adoption web conference to learn about best-in-class EV marketing strategies and customer insights. Featuring one of the top EV salespeople in the US, we’ll be talking about how to close deals by overcoming barriers to adoption, which customer segments are ready to adopt EVs, and how to address range anxiety.

  • Don’t be afraid to go big: electric buses offer tremendous load growth and emission reductions.
  • Don’t be afraid to go off-road: electric ground support at airports and electric cranes can electrify ports anywhere.
  • Don’t forget about the little guys: electric forklifts and electric carts represent a significant number of vehicles.

So as I check in every few years and continue to see EV progress, I want to give a shout out to all the EVangelists that have been working hard to launch or expand their utilities’ EV programs and services. Although there is still much work to be done, it is always nice to take a moment and applaud the work you are doing.

Don’t just take our word for it. Hear from utility EVangelists

At the 2019 E Source Forum, we invited some utility EV experts to make the case for expanding the scope of transportation-electrification initiatives in the session Transportation electrification: Are you missing the boat? Afterwards, we conducted video interviews with the presenters that cover topics like bus electrification, the electric scooter phenomenon, and the future of EV programs.