Toledo area and Ohio residents are buying electric vehicles at less than half the pace as the nation on average, a fact that auto dealers and analysts chalk up to consumer price sensitivity, hit-and-miss charging infrastructure, and vehicle availability.
Locally and statewide, EV sales represented about 3 percent of total new vehicle sales during the first six months of 2023 vs. 7.2 percent nationally, according to vehicle registration data.
That’s not to say that EV sales aren’t growing in Toledo or Ohio. They are.
During the first six months of 2022, just 313 EVs were sold in northwest Ohio, representing a paltry 1.72 percent of all new vehicles sold in the region. Statewide, EV share of new vehicle sales stood at 2 percent a year ago.
But there has been a modest but noticeable increase in adoption this year both locally and statewide, the data show.
Local dealers say the Jeep Wrangler 4xe gasoline-electric hybrid leads the way.
The electrified version of the iconic SUV is considered an EV because it is plugged in to charge an onboard battery that yields about 22 miles of electric-only power. Traditional hybrids like the popular Toyota Prius use braking friction and other onboard means to charge a smaller internal battery.
Jeep, one of the brands of Stellantis NV, says the Wrangler 4xe is now the best-selling plug-in hybrid in America and accounted for 36 percent of new Wrangler sales in the second quarter. It was launched two years ago.
They are selling briskly in Toledo and plenty are in stock at dealerships. Wrangler 4xe sales nationally were up 56 percent in the second quarter compared with a year ago.
Charlie’s Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram in Maumee sold 97 four-door Jeep Wranglers over the past 12 months, with hybrids accounting for 17, or 21 percent, of the mix and traditional gasoline-powered Wranglers selling 80 units, said Ken Millen, the dealership’s new car sales manager.
What Jeep is sending to Charlie’s could swing the number more to the hybrids.
Mr. Millen said Charlie’s received five four-door Wranglers in its July allocation of vehicles from the factory and they were all hybrids.
“Availability has picked up,” he said.
Yark Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram in Toledo is seeing a similar trend.
Last week the store had 10 Wranglers in stock – six traditional gas-powered models and four hybrids, said Billy Yark, vice president and chief marketing officer of the multi-brand dealership group.
Inside the numbers
Toledoans buy more hybrids as a percentage of overall EV purchases than the rest of Ohio, data show.
Through the first six months of 2023, 38 percent of EVs bought in Toledo were plug-in hybrids while the other 62 percent were all-electric vehicles such as a Tesla model or Ford Lightning pickup truck.
For all of Ohio, just 27 percent of new EV sales in the first half of the year were plug-in hybrids, vehicle registration data show.
Mr. Millen said Toledoans can buy or lease a $60,000 Wrangler hybrid for about the same payment as a similarly equipped gas-powered Wrangler when a $7,500 federal tax credit on the hybrid model is thrown in.
Moreover, 65 percent of Charlie’s business comes from Jeep employees, suppliers, or friends and family members who qualify for an additional discount because of their association with the manufacturer, Mr. Millen said.
An employee discount yields another $2,000 to $4,000 off the price of the vehicle, or 5.5 percent below dealer invoice, while friends and family qualify for 1 percent below invoice, he said.
About 6,000 UAW-represented workers are employed at the Toledo Assembly Complex where the Wrangler and Jeep Gladiator mid-sized pickup truck are exclusively built for sale globally. Thousands more people locally work for Jeep suppliers, such as Dana Inc. in Maumee.
Insights offered
It’s no surprise the Wrangler and its hybrid variant are selling well in Toledo, said Ivan Drury, Director of Insights at online car-shopping site Edmunds.com.
For leasers of the Wrangler 4xe, the federal tax credit and an employee or supplier discount could bring down the cost of the lease by $100 to $200 per month, Mr. Drury said.
“You’re in a factory town; it’s hard to turn that deal down,” he said.
Toledo still has a long way to go, though, to close the gap with other parts of the country in EV adoption, said Michelle Krebs, executive analysts for Cox Automotive, a dealership software and car-shopping site giant that owns Autotrader.com and Kelley Blue Book.
“The whole Midwest is slow at adoption,” Ms. Krebs said.
Toledo is deficient in charging infrastructure compared to states where EV sales are strong, such as California, she said.
Ohioans also tend to be practical, Mr. Drury said, considering hard the value of paying an extra $10,000 to $15,000 for an all-electric vehicle that will take many years to recoup in cost savings over increasingly fuel-efficient gas engines.
Vinnie Schiavone, general manager at Jim White Toyota at 6123 Central Avenue in Toledo, said he sees those attitudes play out every day at the dealership.
Toyota offers one all-electric vehicle – a bZ4X crossover – and several models sold as plug-in hybrid variants, including the Prius and RAV4 SUV.
But his customers opt almost exclusively for gas-powered vehicles or traditional hybrids rather than for the more expensive EVs, he said.
Of the 698 new Toyotas sold by the store over the past 12 months, none was all-electric and just four were plug-in hybrids, he said. In contrast, 202 were traditional hybrids.
“If I had 2,000 hybrids, I would sell them all and it wouldn’t take a week,” he said.
After a few weeks of being unable to sell the all-electric bZ4X he had in stock, Mr. Schiavone said they turned it into a shuttle for the dealership.
Toyota executives have been outspoken in their belief that traditional hybrids offer the best value for improving gas mileage while staying within customer budgets.
For example, Mr. Schiavone said he had a traditional hybrid version of the popular RAV4 SUV in the XSE trim priced at $39,797, while the plug-in version known as the RAV4 Prime is priced at $51,982 similarly equipped.
He said the $12,000 difference is almost all in the cost of batteries.
The gas-powered version of a RAV4 XSE is about $35,000.
And while many dealerships in the area are spending up to $1 million to install public-facing chargers for the EVs they’ll eventually be selling, Mr. Schiavone said Jim White Toyota has spent $70,000, including installation, for one fast charger with hook-ins for two vehicles at a time.
The state of Ohio, through its DriveOhio division, is working to add charging infrastructure and remove the obstacle of range anxiety from the EV buying equation, said DriveOhio Executive Director Preeti Choudhary.
DriveOhio plans to spend $140 million over the next five years with private-sector companies competing to install charging stations around the state, Ms. Choudhary said. The plan is to have charging stations every 50 miles on interstates and to fill in the gap with additional stations on smaller highways, she said.
As part of initial awards to vendors this summer, charging stations will be installed along I-75 in northwest Ohio near Toledo and Bowling Green.
The first round of funding was for $18 million to have 27 charging stations installed around the state, she said.
First Published August 6, 2023, 1:30 p.m.
