AUSTIN, Texas — Austin hosted Electrify Expo, North America's largest electric vehicle festival Nov. 12-14 at Circuit of the Americas. The future in Austin and the rest of Texas is gearing towards electric, but one report shows Texas might not be ready to support the change.
“We haven't seen an investigation or a study at this point,” Bryan Howard, the state policy director for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy said. “We have not seen an overall roadmap in the state’s government to get a sense of how to plan for demand and how to manage demand.”
Howard says other than Austin, the rest of Texas does not have a plan in place when it comes to electric vehicle infrastructure. It’s listed as number 27 out of 29 in the council’s state transportation electrification scorecard, meaning Texas ranks almost last in taking steps to prepare for more EV’s.
According to Storage Cafe, Austin ranks fourth in the country when it comes to electric vehicle infrastructure.
“We have to not only address the energy sector, but also transportation,” Amy Atchley, the senior lead for EV Equity at Austin Energy said.
She says electric vehicles and infrastructure are at the top of Austin Energy’s priorities to reach its goal of net zero carbon emission by 2040. Austin has several incentives for driving electric vehicles such as home charging station rebates and plug-in charging station programs, but the capital city seems to be an outlier.
“Austin is leading in the state of Texas,” Atchley said. “We are number one in EV registrations here in Austin. We really are starting to see the transition here, just like an event like this today, that's going to be happening through the weekend. They're bringing the national event to Austin, that's because Austin Energy in collaboration with our stakeholders have deployed the infrastructure. Austin Energy is number four in the country for the best equipped EV infrastructure.”
According to the festival 20,150 attendees participated and 17,695 demonstrations in electric vehicles as well as on e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards took place over the three-day period.
"The amount of demand here in Austin for electric vehicles is evident in the high number of demo rides that took place this weekend," said Electrify Expo Founder BJ Birtwell. "The city has an incredible opportunity to lead the way not just in EV adoption, but also in policymaking and infrastructure. We are looking forward to returning to Austin in 2022 and being a resource for the city to educate consumers on the benefits of electric vehicles through hands-on experiences like those that take place at Electrify Expo."
Exhibiting for the first time in Texas, Mercedes-Benz revealed its brand new EQS and provided first-ever consumer demo rides. Additionally, Hyundai’s unreleased Ioniq 5, Kias EV6, along with Porsche’s latest Taycan EV and BMWS iX were among the brands on display at Electrify Expo.
“There is a huge amount of interest in Texas, in electrification,” Michael Schweizer, the pricing and EV specialist at Mini, said.
He says like other car companies that are going electric, Mini wants to phase out their gasoline-powered vehicles, and replace them with electric vehicles by 2030.
“I'm just gonna start with a (Tesla) Model 3,” Omar Revelo, an attendee at Austin’s Electrify Expo who purchased a Tesla in October said. “Next I'm gonna jump pretty sure to another one. That's what I wanted to see, other brands, what they offer and see if I can jump in a different one in the future.”
It’s a future that Texas can see down the road, but has miles to go before catching up.