Kia Warns California Still Isn't Ready For Mainstream EV Adoption | The Morning Shift

A quarter of the 28,506 electric vehicles Kia sold in the United States last year went to buyers in California, but the EV6 maker still thinks the Golden State — which is by far the best prepared for mainstream EV adoption in the U.S. — still has all the work to do. Particularly if it wants to eliminate new gas car sales come 2035.

American Car Buyers Are Warming Up to EVs

Kia America COO Steve Center and CEO Sean Yoon met with California Governor Gavin Newsom this month to discuss their concerns, which Center later relayed in an interview with Automotive News published Tuesday:

“We will make the EVs, and now we need California to continue effort on infrastructure and consumer education before industry EV volume exceeds capacity and consideration,” Kia COO Steve Center told Automotive News. […]

The state also achieved its goal to hit 1.5 million EV sales by 2025 two years ahead of schedule. But to get to the level of adoption it wants, Center said, the state must do more to advance its charging infrastructure, which includes electricity generation, transmission and dispensing.

There are currently 87,707 chargers in California. But according to the California Clean Energy Commission, the state will need 1.2 million public and shared Level 2 and DC Fast chargers by 2030 to support 7.5 million EVs.

EV growth will also require improved efficiency at California’s ports and shipping facilities, Center said. He described the ports as a “choking point” for bringing vehicles into the country.

“If we cannot improve throughput, we will have to create other pathways into the U.S. market,” he said. “This issue impacts vehicle, parts and manufacturing needs, as well as the consumer.”

Center reiterated that the private sector can’t meet these goals on its own, which is why programs like the Biden administration’s charging grants are important. But even then, experts have derided that $7.5 billion in total funding as a “great down payment.”

Electric car sales — including battery EVs and plug-in hybrids — have largely grown quarter-by-quarter since 2020, today comprising 8.4 percent of new cars sold nationwide according to data from the Argonne National Laboratory. And yet consumer satisfaction with public charging stations in the U.S. is declining, not improving. That is, unless you typically use Tesla’s Superchargers, which likely explains why Ford and General Motors are hopping on that bandwagon. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Perhaps it’s only a matter of time before Kia and Hyundai do the same.