South Dakota Is One of the Worst Places to Own an Electric Vehicle

Ready or not, there's a new reality coming for car owners across America.

Just last month (August 5), President Biden called for half of all new vehicles to be electric or hybrid-electric cars by 2030. That's just a little more than eight years away.

Across the country, we're already seeing a massive uptick in electric vehicle (EV) sales. Pew Research says the number of registered EVs in the United States jumped from 300,000 in 2016 to 1.1 million in 2020.

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But that push towards more environmentally friendly vehicles hasn't quite made it to South Dakota.

A new study done by Bumper.com ranks the Mount Rushmore State as the fifth-worst place in America to own an electric vehicle.

While states like Colorado offer as much as a $7,500 tax credit for the purchase of an EV, South Dakota is the fourth-worst state for EV financial incentives.

That is one reason why the state lags behind much of the country in terms of the number of EVs on the road. South Dakota is next to last in the U.S. with just 0.03 percent of EVs among all registered vehicles - just 410 as of the end of 2020. By contrast, there are 425,300 EVs registered in California.

Nationally, 0.24% of cars on the road in each state were electric vehicles in 2020.

WORST STATES TO OWN AN ELECTRIC CAR (Bumper.com)

1. Alaska
2. Alabama
3. South Carolina
4. Mississippi
5. South Dakota
6. Kentucky
7. Louisiana
8. Arkansas
9. Minnesota
10. Michigan

BEST STATES TO OWN AN ELECTRIC CAR (Bumper.com)

1. Washington
2. Utah
3. Colorado
4. Massachusetts
5. California
6. Maryland
7. Oregon
8. New York
9. Nevada
10. Hawaii