Electric vehicle sales in the U.S. are falling, but EV chargers are on the rise

Recently, a Bojangles restaurant in Savannah, Georgia added a new item to their menu in addition to the usual fried chicken and honey mustard. Customers can now also get help with electricity for their car.

The bright yellow electric vehicle chargers Bojangles has installed here might seem like an odd connection to the chain’s Southern fare. Battery-powered cars are often associated with liberal strongholds on the West and East Coasts, not the Deep South.

But states like Florida and Texas are seeing the fastest growth in sales of electric vehicles and charging stations. Georgia had 29 percent more charging ports last month than a year earlier, according to Paren, which tracks electric vehicle data.

Companies like Bojangles and Buc-ee’s, huge travel centers that started in Texas before expanding to other states, sense an opportunity to increase sales of food, beverages and other merchandise by attracting more drivers.

“We knew we had a certain percentage of our guests who were electric car drivers,” Richard Del Valle, Bojangles’ chief information officer, said over a plate of chicken at the Savannah restaurant. “We see them walking through our driveways. So we wanted something for them.”.”

Sales of electric vehicles in the United States fell after Congress and President Trump last fall ended a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 for people who bought or leased them. But there still aren’t enough chargers to serve all the electric vehicles on America’s roads, industry executives say.

There are signs that the market is stabilizing. Sales of new electric vehicles rose 15 percent in the second quarter from the first three months of the year, although they were still down from last year, according to Cox Automotive. And sales of used electric vehicles are soaring as lease contracts expire.

And while electric cars can be politically divisive in Washington — Mr. Trump has often attacked them, and former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has embraced them—many Americans, including in conservative areas, tend to judge them by how well they meet their needs.

Some Southerners, like Clyde Campbell, said they were drawn to EVs for economic reasons. On a recent steamy day, Mr. Campbell was charging his Volkswagen ID.Buzz van at a station operated by Mercedes-Benz in Savannah.

Mr Campbell, who is a part-time minister, uses the van as part of a private transport service. He once owned a Lincoln Navigator that cost $85 to fill up with gas, much more than it costs to fill up a Volkswagen. The fuel savings are enough to cover his monthly car payment, he said.

“I ran the numbers,” said Mr. Campbell, who also sells his own barbecue sauce, Clyde’s Big Daddy’s. “Even if I’m paying $25 here,” he said, referring to the cost of using a Mercedes charging station, “I’ll save money on a tank of gas in the Navigator.”

About two-thirds of the 900 Mercedes-Benz High Performance Chargers in the United States are in southern states.

Charging stations are growing fastest in states that have followed California’s lead in electric vehicle sales. In the second quarter, Texas and Florida trailed only California and Illinois in charger installations, according to Paren.

In percentage terms, South Carolina had the third-highest growth with an 11.4 percent increase over the first quarter, just behind Illinois and Kentucky.

“The need for charging is huge,” said Madeline Ebert, senior director of product management for the Mercedes-Benz Charging Network. “We will continue to build out our network so that chargers will be available when sales pick up again.”

German luxury cars and Texas institution Buc-ee’s might seem like another odd pairing. But 28 Buc-ee’s, known for smoked brisket sandwiches and caramel-coated puffed corn nuggets, have Mercedes charging stations.

Charging companies are finding that the best locations are those that give EV owners a place to eat or shop during the half hour or so it takes to charge.

“You can use your time in a good way,” Ms. Ebert said.

Tia and Tom Wouters stopped to charge their Mercedes electric SUV at a Buc-ee’s in Florida during a trip to North Carolina and were impressed.

“There was a lot of food,” Mr Wouters said as he used the Mercedes charger in Savannah. “It was like Disneyland.

The South is also a major center for the production of electric vehicles. Hyundai builds the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9 at a massive factory about a half-hour drive from Savannah. The South Korean automaker also manufactures batteries at the site in a joint venture with LG Energy Solution.

Mercedes builds the EQS and EQE electric SUVs in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and BMW announced last month that it will build an electric version of its X5 SUV in Spartanburg, SC.

Republicans welcomed the investment, even though they opposed subsidies for electric cars.

“It’s a great reason why more people are moving here than ever before,” Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina told BMW executives in Spartanburg last month as the automaker unveiled the new X5 models. “They want to be part of this great success.”

Southern electric companies encourage electric car ownership. Georgia Power provides rebates to customers who install home chargers and get a lower rate at night. TXU Energy in Texas is offering free home charging to electric vehicle owners from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. The utility wants people to charge at night to smooth out fluctuations in demand and make it easier to manage the grid.

“The cheapest fuel right now is at midnight in the red state garage,” said Joseph Vellone, CEO of ChargeScape, which helps customers take advantage of the charging benefits offered by energy companies. It is a joint venture between BMW, Ford Motor, Honda and Nissan.

But while they can charge at home, many Americans worry that it might not be easy to do while on the road. This is one of the reasons why car manufacturers install chargers themselves or through partnerships with other businesses.

“Confidence that the stations are there will give people the confidence they need to buy an electric car,” said Mercedes’ Ms Ebert.

Bojangles made sure the chargers in Savannah, provided by XLR8 America, were visible from the busy four-lane road in front of the restaurant. The Savannah location is the only Bojangles with a charger so far, but the company plans to add 85 by early next year.

The chargers will help attract a different kind of customer, said Rajiv Dinakaran, chief operating officer of Georgia Foods, the family-owned business that owns 45 Bojangles franchises, including the one in Savannah.

Georgia Foods, one of Bojangles’ biggest franchisees, wants to install “as many as we can,” said Mr. Dinakaran, who runs Tesla. “We see this as something that will be great for the business.”