There is a very good chance that the next car or truck you buy will not be a traditional internal combustion engine vehicle. According to the website, Greencarsreports.com, global sales of electric vehicles are now outpacing internal combustion cars. Further, the site reports that sales of internal combustion cars have peaked.
The trend means that week by week and year by year drivers with EVs are going to need more and more charging stations and, more specifically, easy to access charging stations. Pueblo, like other U.S. cities, is recognizing this issue and addressing it as demand for these stations increases.
Pueblo’s City Council passed a new ordinance on May 14th that says those parking old school vehicles—gasoline powered—in electric vehicle charging spaces will soon be getting ticketed. The ordinance, which passed unanimously by council, will go into effect in mid-June.`
The city’s parking enforcement officers will be authorized to write a $150 parking ticket to vehicles found in violation of the new law. Police, however, will be authorized to write similar citations to non-EV vehicles on private property, such as hotel parking lots. The new Pueblo ordinance is in line with similar legislation passed on the state level.
The new ordinance, said Andrew Hayes, Director Public Works for the city, is putting Pueblo ahead of the curve as demand is lessening for internal combustion vehicles and growing dramatically for the more environmentally friendly EV wave of cars and trucks.
Like other cities, said Hayes, Pueblo will be “designing and installing (charging stations) in the coming weeks and months ahead.” The city already has enough stations to meet current needs, but as EVs become more and more the reality than the exception, “We’re trying to make sure we have a plan in place,” said the retired Naval officer.
It was just one year ago that the Biden Administration announced plans to encourage big automakers to accelerate the manufacture of EVs. Since then, General Motors reconfigured a Detroit factory to make the switch. It also has started production of a new battery plant in Ohio. Volkswagen is also taking the plunge and making a line of EVs in Tennessee. Toyota is set to build a battery plant in North Carolina. Half of Ford’s line, it projects, will be EVs by 2030.
The big name auto makers are not making the switch completely for altruistic reasons. China is the largest automobile market worldwide and Honda, Toyota and Volkswagen are pushing hard to maintain their share of the market there. Selling EVs, they know, is their future.
While the Pueblo new ordinance may seem almost incidental, the city, like others across Colorado and the nation, is positioning itself for the future.
The Environmental Protection Agency has announced it wants EVs to make up as much as 60 percent of new vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2030 and as much as 67 percent by 2032.
Still, while the switch is on, sales of EVs still lag far behind ‘your father’s Buick,’ that is, gasoline-powered vehicles. In 2022, only 5.8 percent of the nearly 14 million cars and trucks sold were EVs. Yes, it’s early. But it is also expected that by 2040, nearly 70 million EVs will be on the road. Tax incentives attached to the purchase of EVs—as much as $5,000 in Colorado—as well as rapid development of technology and cheaper manufacturing costs will fuel the jump.
While the ordinance is primarily for the convenience of Pueblo EV owners, said Hayes, it’s ultimately a benefit for a lot of others as well as the environment. “We’re at a crossroads here,” he said. People traveling through the city with their EVs also will benefit. “We’re trying to make sure we have a plan in place.”
To fast track the installation of more charging stations, Pueblo just received a $445,000 grant from the Colorado Energy Office to install four direct current fast-charge stations. New EV charging stations are planned for 114 S. Main, 214 Grand Avenue and 210 W. Eighth Street, all in or near the city’s downtown.
