LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Car buyers may not be quite ready to make the leap to electric cars. A local expert tells WDRB the reason many drivers are holding out is because there aren't enough chargers, and electric vehicles don't have long enough range.
"There's not that many places to plug up," said Charlie Grant. He's adamant he will never drive an electric vehicle. "My time is worth more than that. Worth more than sitting on the corner waiting to plug up."
Grant is in the majority. Pew research shows 7 in 10 Americans wouldn't consider going electric.
University of Louisville economics professor Jose Fernandez said demand for electric vehicles is still going strong but has cooled off lately. "It's expected that sales will be not as strong as they were in previous years."
Kelley Blue Book says electric vehicle sales were down over 7 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the previous quarter.
"If you compare it over the year, they have actually gone up by about 7 percent. Still not as great as the year before, but bigger than previous years. So it's still showing us that there is a demand for EVs. It's just not as strong as it used to be," Fernandez said.
Many car companies are banking on electric vehicle success.
Ford Motor Company in a joint venture with its Korean partner SK On is spending $5.8 billion on a pair of electric vehicle battery plants outside of Elizabethtown.
Taxpayers footed a $250 million bill for the plants, so 5,000 jobs would to come to Kentucky, but production is paused at one of the plants because of expected demand.
BlueOval SK told WDRB "We will continue to keep a close eye on customer demand and work with our parent companies to ramp up battery production at Kentucky 2 when appropriate," the company said in a statement.
BlueOval SK says it is "excited about the future of electric vehicles and we are investing heavily to support it... We believe electric vehicles sales will continue to grow."
At plant 1 "production is on schedule to begin at Kentucky 1 in 2025 once construction is complete," according to a statement from the company.
The company started construction on another battery plant in Stanton, Tennessee called BlueOval City in 2022. BlueOval SK says "we are on schedule to begin production at the BlueOval SK battery plant at BlueOval City in Stanton, Tennessee in late 2025."
There is still some skepticism among consumers. "I don’t think peoples buying into it. I think it's a crazy idea, personally," said Grant
Fernandez is optimistic. "I think we'll continue to see an increase, but it's going to be at a decreasing rate."
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