Trade in your flood-damaged vehicle for an EV and Vermont will help with incentives

In the wake of the July floods, the Vermont Agency of Transportation has strengthened its incentive programs for Vermonters whose personal vehicles were damaged by flooding, in a bid to encourage those folks to switch to an electric vehicle.

The Replace Your Ride Program offers up to $5,000 for swapping a vehicle that runs on gas or diesel for an EV. This program now accepts flood-damaged vehicles, regardless of age or whether they're drivable. There are other guidelines to meet, VTrans notes.

New or leased EVs are eligible for an additional $1,000 incentive, bringing the total up to $6,000 for eligible Vermonters replacing flood-damaged vehicles.

The MileageSmart Program is the state's high-efficiency used vehicle program providing up to 25% of a vehicle's price as an incentive. Now, the program will automatically provide a full $5,000 incentive to Vermonters replacing flood-damaged vehicles.

These various incentives can be bundled for as much as $11,000 off the price of a new EV and as much as a maximum of $10,000 off the price of a used EV, according to VTrans. Those amounts are in addition to utility rebates and federal tax credits.

EV market share in Vermont continues to rise, despite troubling signs in the national market

David Roberts, Drive Electric Vermont coordinator at VEIC, said that as of April 2024, there are a total of 13,940 EVs in Vermont, which breaks down to 8,089 all-electric vehicles and 5,851 plug-in hybrids. Plug-in hybrids operate on both electricity and gas, but are considered EVs, according to Roberts.

Despite some troubling signs nationally in EV sales − Ford recently announced it would build Super Duty trucks in a Canadian plant rather than the all-electric vehicles it previously planned to build − Roberts said EV sales continue to increase and market share continues to go up in Vermont on an annual basis. There were only about 4,000 EVs in Vermont in 2020, compared to nearly 14,000 today, according to electric vehicle registrations in the state.

Nationally, Cox Automotive reported on July 11 that EV sales in the U.S. grew by 11.3% year over year in the second quarter, reaching a record-high volume of 330,463 units, according to new estimates from Kelley Blue Book.

Vermont ranks high in national study on market share and ratio of EVs to public chargers

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation recently ranked Vermont 12th in the nation for EV market share and eighth in the nation in the ratio of EVs to public chargers. The Alliance counts most major car manufacturers among its members, including Ford, and calls itself "the unified voice of the automotive industry."

While Tesla remains the national leader in EVs, with just under 50% market share, the story is a little different in Vermont, with Tesla coming in second to Toyota, according to Roberts. There are 2,448 Toyota EVs for an 18% market share in Vermont, compared to 2,150 Teslas, with a 15% market share. Chevrolet rounds out the top three brands for EVs in Vermont, with 1,621 vehicles on the road and a 12% market share. Roberts said the recent opening of a Tesla store and service facility in South Burlington will likely improve Tesla's position in Vermont.

"It's been a bit of a challenge (to own a Tesla in Vermont) in terms of servicing until that facility opened," he said. "Tesla does have a mobile service that takes care of a lot of things, but anything that required a lift meant you had to travel to Montreal, Albany or the Boston area."

Public charging stations remain a big challenge for EV advocates

One of the more daunting data points in the Alliance for Automotive Innovation study, if you're an EV advocate, is that more than 1 million public chargers need to be installed nationwide in the next six years to meet the "National Renewable Energy Laboratory's necessary infrastructure estimate for 2030."

"Put another way, 438 chargers will need to be installed every day − or nearly three chargers every 10 minutes − through the end of 2030," the Alliance report states.

Roberts said the 1 million number for the nation refers to "charging plugs, not locations," but conceded there's still an "ambitious and significant need to build out more public charging."

Where does Vermont stand on charging locations and plugs? The U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center indicates there are 74 fast charging locations with 177 charging plugs, and 350 level 2 charging locations with 862 plugs statewide in Vermont.

Roberts said it typically takes a couple of hours to charge an EV at a level 2 plug. That compares to about half an hour at a fast charging plug.

By the end of 2025, VTrans' latest EV charging plan is targeting an additional 70 fast charging plugs for a total of 247 plugs, and an additional 94 level 2 plugs for a total of 956 plugs, which would be enough plugs to support an expected 27,000 EVs in the state.

"So that would be double (the number of EVs) where we are right now," Roberts said. "There's obviously a need to continue investing, but we're not starting from zero."

Roberts pointed out that in addition to state investments in charging stations and plugs, there are others out there in Vermont, such as electric utilities and private companies, installing public charging, in some cases in partnership with the state and in some cases on their own.

"Vermont is a tourist destination," he said. "We want to make sure folks driving from Quebec or Boston have reliable access to charging stations."

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT.