EV Registrations, Sales In Wyoming Grow Despite Big Auto Pullbacks

CHEYENNE — Even while auto manufacturers are pumping the brakes on investing in the future of electric vehicles as car buyers think twice on making expensive purchases and recharging them, signs of a slowdown in Wyoming aren’t necessarily materializing.

EV registrations are up in Wyoming, the Wyoming Department of Transportation is getting ready to see who can build out an infrastructure of charging stations along the Cowboy State’s interstates, and one major auto dealership in Cheyenne is seeing an uptick in sales.

Cheyenne-based Domino’s pizza franchises see value in the Chevy Bolts as part of their EV delivery fleet and plan to buy more.

With WYDOT, the state agency is moving forward with plans to build out an infrastructure of charging stations along major interstates in the Cowboy State.

WYDOT is expected to issue a request for proposals for help with that federal initiative in early 2025, said Jordan Young, a spokeswoman for the state transportation agency.

Wyoming is experiencing some EV growth, albeit not enough to push it up from its ranking of having the second least number of registrations in the United States.

North Dakota was at the bottom with 876 EV registrations in 2023, a growth of 276 registrations from 2022.

North Dakota is in the cellar, but Wyoming is next to the bottom.

The Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, along with data pulled from credit rating agency Experian, said Wyoming had 1,080 electric vehicle registrations in 2023, up from 800 the previous year.

That’s not enough to move the needle. The 1,080 EVs in Wyoming represents 0.03% of the total 3.3 million EVs registered in all of 2023.

Some think it may be a while before EV acceptance in the region is ever embraced, though it is taking baby steps.

“I think a big part of it is that Wyoming, Montana and the Western frontier and mountain regions are big, big, big trucker states,” said Joseph Yoon, a consumer insights analyst with Santa Monica, California-based Edmunds, an online resource for buying and selling cars and providing expert car reviews.

“Realistically, for those truck guys, trucks are diehard brands in their culture, whether it’s Ford or GM,” Yoon told Cowboy State Daily.

"I’m based here in the Los Angeles area, and I have plenty of reasons to switch to an EV,” he said. "There are plenty of chargers and I don’t haul anything on a regular basis, and the towns are all interconnected.”

Yoon also said that the open prairies of Wyoming and adjoining states contribute to “range anxiety.”

“The range anxiety of owning an EV is real,” Yoon said. “The EV is immature, and it currently doesn’t cover all the bases of what the consumer is looking for. Sure, it’ll get there, but it isn’t there yet.”

Interest In Wyoming’s EVs

Dallas Tyrrell, owner of Tyrrell Honda and Chevrolet dealerships in Cheyenne, told Cowboy State Daily that he’s seeing a resurgence of certain models of electric vehicles that align with demographics in the state, which hasn’t always been roped in to the idea of EVs.

Domino’s Pizza in Cheyenne has picked up a handful of its Chevy Bolt EVs and is planning more purchases to deliver pizza at a few locations that don’t have them, according to Tyrrell.

Two Bolts each were seen charging at Domino’s locations along Pershing Boulevard and South Greeley Highway in south Cheyenne.

“They plan to move more into their fleet,” Tyrrell said.

Joel Manguso, a partner and director of operations for about 20 Domino’s franchises in northern Colorado and Cheyenne, was not immediately available for comment.

The Loveland, Colorado, owner Max Impact, which owns the EVs, plans to make more purchases.

“As far as charging the cars overnight, we get about 200 miles per charge, and run between 60 and 90 miles a day,” said Josh Sheppard, store manager of the pizza store along South Greeley Highway. “They give us flexibility when someone can’t use their car because it’s in the shop. It gives us something to hold us over.”

“They’re really nice,” said pizza driver Shelby Johnson, who makes deliveries in the Bolt for about seven hours daily. “It’s as smooth as my Hyundai.”

Terrell said that the Bolts are becoming hot sellers.

“We can’t keep the Chevy Bolts in stock. They are in high demand. It’s probably our No. 1 seller,” Tyrrell said of the EV that has a starting price of $27,000.

The four-wheel drive Silverado EV, which can sell for about $105,000, also has attracted interest from high-end ranchers and other customers.

“They came out earlier this year. We’re probably selling nine to 15 a month. We’ve had pretty healthy sales on them,” Tyrrell said.

“We’re in a unique position because we’re selling a lot of EVs into Denver and Boulder, especially since the (EV) trucks are hitting the market,” he said. “Everyone knows you can get better deals in Wyoming because there is less overhead, and we have the inventory.”

Pulling Back On EVs

The upbeat news comes just as automakers issued a series of pivots this summer where they’re rethinking their EV plans.

Ford Motor Co. said that it would refit a plant in Canada to make large gas-fired pickups instead of electric sport-utility vehicles originally planned for that facility.

General Motors Co. said it planned to cut back this year’s production of EVs by 50,000 units to a range from 200,000 to 250,000 vehicles.

Big Three automaker rival Stellantis paused development of a joint venture battery factory with Mercedes and instead signed a deal with China’s Leapmotor to build EVs.

Germany’s Volkswagen also has pulled back.

And EV leader Tesla Inc. said that it is pulling back on investment in battery-powered vehicles. The company backed off on plans to build an electric car factory in Mexico and canceled a meeting in April between CEO Elon Musk and Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, to discuss a new plant in that country.

Pulling back to cut expenses has not been enough for some.

California-based EV maker Fisker filed for bankruptcy protection in June.

Charging Stations

Meanwhile, Wyoming is moving forward with its plans for electric charging stations, a move that could stimulate the market further.

WYDOT’s Young wrote in an email statement to Cowboy State Daily that the request for proposals (RFP) to build electric charging stations along Wyoming’s major interstates will be published in early 2025.

HDR Inc., a consultant hired by WYDOT, is helping draft the RFP.

Wyoming is no further behind than other states in the arduous process to build out a federal network of charging stations.

For instance, said Young, “to the best of our knowledge, 16 NEVI charging stations with 66 charging ports have been installed nationwide.”

In an interview in May, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennen that it takes time to get the infrastructure built to install the chargers.

Buttigieg said that the goal is to get half a million chargers up and running by the end of the decade.

The state’s forthcoming RFP in early 2025 would be the first one issued in Wyoming and would provide about $26.8 million to help build a network of 26 charging stations in the state, Young said.

How Many Stations?

“The number of stations will vary depending on the level of interest in installing this infrastructure, especially in the more rural areas of the interstates,” she said.

WYDOT plans to make additional exemption requests with the Federal Highway Administration’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program.

WYDOT is working with the NEVI program, which has offered federal funds as part of a national plan from the Biden administration to build charging stations along interstate corridors.

In Wyoming, those corridors are along Interstates 80, 25 and 90.

Earlier this year, WYDOT moved forward with its proposed plans to build charging stations from the Federal Housing Administration, even though nothing has yet been built and solicitations to bring on board contractors for a statewide charging network haven’t yet happened.

The NEVI program requires a 20% match from private businesses, which would build and operate the stations.

The feds would kick in money to support the stations’ operations for up to five years. The program required no state money.

Young said that WYDOT plans to make additional requests to the 50-mile and 1-mile requirements in the NEVI rules.

To date, the only exemption approved by the NEVI program in Wyoming has been a 50-mile exemption on the I-90 between Buffalo and Gillette.

Pat Maio can be reached at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.