Electric vehicles rev up growth in SWFL

Around here, the electric vehicle revolution so far has sounded like the cars themselves. It has been a quiet one in Southwest Florida, where sales of new electric vehicles, or EVs, exponentially have grown over the past five years, but have sputtered behind the rest of the country. In 2023 and beyond, however, the sales of EVs appear poised to accelerate quickly around the region … as soon as supply-chain issues get resolved.

The times, and the energy sources for driving, are changing. Sometimes at a rate that seems as fast as a Tesla Model 3, which can accelerate from zero to 60 mph in 3.1 seconds and reach top speeds of 162 mph. At other times, the pace of change seems as slow as a horse-drawn carriage.

There were 67,952 new cars sold in Southwest Florida in 2022. Of those, 3,649 were EVs, according to sales data from Experian Automotive AutoCount. That means 5.3% of all new vehicles sold in Charlotte, Collier and Lee counties were electric last year. The United States, as a whole, averaged more, with 5.8% of all new vehicles sold, an increase from the 3.2% mark in 2021, according to data pulled by the Wall Street Journal. The same story put the rest of the world at about a 10% market share rate for new EVs against their gas-powered counterparts.

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