Team takeaways from EV webinars

To kick off 2022, CERTs hosted a series of internal EV (electric vehicle) focused webinars. CERTs steering committee members and staff had a chance to hear from local experts on the latest EV facts and trends. Learning opportunities like these mean our statewide team can better support Minnesota communities in their EV journeys. 

Read on to learn what CERTs staff thought about the series. But first, check out a few of our EV projects already in motion for 2022:

• We are working on an initiative to increase EV adoption by reducing barriers throughout Greater MN by engaging with cities, tribal nations, utilities, and businesses (e.g. auto dealerships). 
• Great Plains Institute, one of the four CERTs partners, is preparing to launch EV-ready Tribal Nations and EV-ready Cities certification programs.
• We are actively gathering information to better enable communities to take advantage of several resources — including federal funding — that will be available this year.  

January 6, 2022 — Jukka Kukkonen, chief EV educator and strategist at Shift2Electric, presented to the team on the current state of the EV market and what’s coming next.

Takeaways

• There are more and more models coming out. At this point, MN isn't a primary market for many vehicles, but the pace of adoption is accelerating rapidly in many places. If we had more vehicles, we'd expect our adoption rate to be faster.
• The comment from Jukka "sell your gas-guzzling car now while there's still resale value for it" made me think about equity related to EVs and how tricky that might be, including concerns that the old inefficient gas-powered cars are going to end up in underserved communities? What can CERTs and/or utilities, local units of government, etc. do to address that situation? What strategies or policies would be most helpful? As a society, we better hurry up and figure that out sooner than later.
• Having EV chargers at hotels is needed — made me think maybe we should focus more on that?
• It's important to have several chargers in one site so that if one is already in use, there are enough chargers to accommodate other drivers. 
• This really is the EV decade! It is good to stay on top of the trends and what is coming. I'm really glad that we took some time to focus on EVs in this way with our staff and steering committee members.

EV market trends to watch in 2022

EVs available in the Midwest

EV Battery Info (PDF)

January 13, 2022 — Moaz Uddin, electric vehicle policy specialist in Transportation & Fuels at Great Plains Institute, explained EV-related funding components of the infrastructure bill.

Takeaways

There is real money coming. We need to be cognizant of the opportunities, but there's still a good bit being worked out. We need to keep folks in touch with both the Department of Transportation and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency as money flows into Minnesota.

Infrastructure Bill overview

January 20, 2022 — Siri Simons, interim sustainability program supervisor at the Division of Sustainability and Public Health within the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), shared an assessment facilitated by Great Plains Institute which provided input for potential MnDOT strategies. 

Takeaways

• Current plans will require massive growth in adoption. There are lots of plans; these are required for federal money and they have lots of themes and priorities they are integrating. Not sure equity is as well defined in terms of access in rural communities. Not sure there is a lot of integration of the plans from different entities (private sector, utilities doing their own).
• Minnesota adopted a goal from “Accelerating Electric Vehicle Adoption: A Vision for Minnesota” in 2019, of 20% of light duty vehicles are electric by 2030. 
• As of December 2021, Minnesota has 23,000+ registered electric vehicles.
• Equity is a high priority for MnDOT’s strategies. 

MnDOT 2021 EV Assessment

EV Dashboard

January 27, 2022 — Amanda Jarret Smith, climate and energy policy planner at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, presented an in-depth look at the Clean Cars rule. 

Takeaways

• Clean Cars MN does not dictate exact numbers, vehicle types or locations for the vehicles. Nor does the rule dictate dealer sales, just the amount they need to make available for more clean car choices. 
• People won’t have to give up their current vehicle or buy an EV. 
• The rule is focused on light duty vehicles which includes sedans, SUVs, and light duty trucks (ex: Ford F-150), not heavy duty vehicles and equipment. 
• If California changes their rules, we do NOT have to adopt them. We can revert back to Federal standards, it's our choice.

Clean Cars Minnesota