BATON ROUGE, LA. (BRPROUD) – These days it seems like more Americans are shifting gears by exchanging traditional gas-powered cars, trucks and SUVs for electric vehicles or EVs.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a total of 1,454,480 all-electric vehicles were registered in the U.S. in 2021 and some experts estimate that by 2030, as many as 35 million electric vehicles will traverse roads across the U.S.
But as more people buy EVs in states like California, Florida, Texas and Washington, what about Louisiana’s capital region? Are Baton Rouge citizens jumping on the EV bandwagon?
Here’s what the numbers say
The latest iSeeCars study showed interesting information about the popularity of EVs in Baton Rouge. The study analyzed how many EV chargers are available per resident in our city and across the nation.
The Baton Rouge metro area has one electric vehicle charger for every 8,901 residents. This sets Baton Rouge far below the national average, which is one for every 2,280 residents.
When it comes to chargers in the Tesla network, the study noted that the Baton Rouge metro area has one charger for every 53,407 residents, which is -380.1% below the national average of one for every 11,124 residents.
Baton Rouge mechanics weigh in
A number of mechanics in Baton Rouge are prepared to work on EVs, but say they rarely see EVs among the automobiles they service.
“I’ve seen a few Teslas. I haven’t seen too many. It’s mostly still gas engines, diesels. I think we’ve had two Teslas here since I’ve been here,” said Jacob Langlinais, an automotive service technician with NTB-National Tire & Battery.
“We don’t do a lot of mechanical work on them. We don’t have enough experience with it.”
Tyler Truxillo, the oil pit manager at Benny’s on Coursey Boulevard said, “We don’t get a lot of electric vehicles. We do change oil on gas-powered vehicles, but electric vehicles don’t really have a motor that we can change oil on.”
He continued, “And when they do need to be serviced, they (drivers) usually take them to the Tesla dealership, or they have to ship them somewhere else to get serviced. So, we don’t do electric vehicles here.”
But will this always be the case?
The future of EV tech in Baton Rouge
When it comes to the future of EV technology in Baton Rouge, Truxillo said, “I think there’s going to be a lot more independent shops working on electric vehicles. Of course, they don’t get the usual maintenance that gasoline-powered vehicles do. So, I don’t think we’re (Benny’s) going to be seeing it a lot, personally. But I do think as electric vehicles become more popular, then there will be a lot more shops doing maintenance on electric vehicles.”
At this point, most Baton Rouge garages are not filled with EVs and some capital-area mechanics look forward to learning more about EV technology.
A recent report from iseecars.com showed that EV market share has grown from 2.7% to 6.4% in the past two years. Those figures also indicate that Baton Rouge’s modest interest in EV technology may increase in the years to come.
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