Drive Electric MN came out with an article recently that caught my attention. It showed just how many electric vehicles have been registered in Minnesota as of spring of 2018 and spring of 2019.

How Does Olmsted County Stack Up To The Rest of Minnesota?

Minnesota as a whole nearly doubled electric vehicle registrations in 1 year from 6,000 to just over 10,000.

The Twin Cities area leads in total number of electric vehicles. This makes sense as they have the largest population, public charging infrastructure, EV inventory available for sale, and they even have all-EV dealerships like GS Motors and a Tesla showroom.

Being the overly competitive person that I am, I wanted to dig a little deeper into the data from Drive Electric MN and Minnesota Department of Transportation and see how the Rochester area / Olmsted County stacked up for EV adoption.

To my surprise, of the 10 largest MN counties, Olmsted County had the highest percentage growth in electric vehicle adoption with an 82% increase. Take that Twin Cities!

Why is Olmsted County Going Electric?

While everyone has their own personal reasons for making the switch to electric, here are a few reasons that I think may be driving the upward trend:

• The majority of growth came from Tesla cars. The Model 3 is the widely popular and will likely be for years to come. However, there was also growth from non-Tesla vehicles as well.

• Seeing electric vehicles around town is no longer a rare occurrence, which increases awareness and normalizes the idea of it.

• The economic, maintenance, and convenience advantages of electric vehicles have come far enough that they’re no longer easy to ignore.

• More people are making the switch to electric to take control of their personal carbon footprint. This is likely in response to recent studies and articles showing the climate is on track to hit a tipping point sooner than expected.

The Rochester Area Should Be A Leader In EV Adoption

While Olmsted County’s growth in EV adoption is promising, there is much room for improvement. A better comparison of the current total number of EVs per county is “EVs per 1000 people” and in that category, Olmsted County falls back to 6th place.

I’d go as far to say that Rochester could and should be Minnesota’s leader in EV adoption.

We have the factors needed to make it easy for people to switch to electric.

Population: We’re the 3rd largest city in the state. We have a large enough market that if the right types of cars that people want are made available, it’s a potentially lucrative market. This will help avoid people going to the Twin Cities area to purchase their vehicle. We’re already seeing the small amount of EV inventory available in Rochester move quickly.

Charging Infrastructure: Rochester already has a head start in charging infrastructure with a Tesla Supercharger and a total of 11 charging stations available to EV owners (although most charging can easily be done at home).

Rochester Electric Vehicles: There is a growing, active, and energized community of EV owners providing education, events, test drives, listing EVs for sale, and other resources to make it easy for the next group of prospective EV owners to make the switch to electric.

Conclusion

There’s never been a better time to make the switch to electric than right now. Roughly 10,000 of your fellow Minnesotas have already done it. When it’s time to get your next car, my hope is that you’ll be one of the next 10,000 to make the switch to electric.

THINKING ABOUT GOING ELECTRIC? HERE’S YOUR GUIDE & CHECKLIST

Download this free guide & checklist of things that I wish I had before buying my electric car. This will help make things easier to get started in your switch to electric.

Here’s what you’ll find:

• Why Go Electric?

• Electric Vehicle Options

• Researching Vehicles For Sale

• Plan For Day of Purchase

• Finding Rochester Public Chargers

• Charging At Home

• Your Electric Vehicle Checklist