Pickup trucks have long ruled Wyoming’s highways, but now they're sharing the road with a rapidly growing fleet of plug-in power.
Mark Horan, public-affairs specialist for the Wyoming Department of Transportation, told Cowboy State Daily the rough numbers are 2,499 all-electric vehicles and 5,862 hybrids registered in the state.
That’s up tenfold from 2024, when there were 800 and Wyoming walked away from $27 million in federal funding to build chargers because there weren’t enough cars to use them.
Car to Career
Eric Secrist of Laramie is one of the newer faces on Wyoming roads. He bought his first Tesla in 2024 and has taken some jabs from family for it since.
“I’ve got an uncle in Iowa who, pardon my language, called me a pussy for buying a Tesla,” Secrist told Cowboy State Daily.
That sentiment is not too far off from how Secrist himself thought of EVs before he got his.
“I used to have that mindset where I laughed every time there's a story about one broken down or one caught on fire and stuff like that,” Secrist said. “I used to have that stupid mindset that they'll never work. They're always going to be crap.”
Secrist's interest in Tesla began with admiration for CEO Elon Musk's dedication to making the technology work, and it soon turned into an obsession with getting one of his own.
“But I had no idea it'd become a huge part of me, part of what I do,” Secrist said. “With my first one, I just bought it for a cool car that I wanted.”
That car soon became Secrist's new career. He started driving Uber a few months after buying it, just to justify the $100 monthly fee for Tesla's self-driving feature. Then he realized that with no fuel costs and little upkeep, the gig could support his wife and two children better than his full-time highway maintenance job.
“I quit my full-time job, and driving my Tesla around became my full-time job,” Secrist said. “It actually worked out for me and my family a lot better than I realized.”
‘Not in Wyoming’
Ron Downey, who just retired from Ken Garff dealership in Cheyenne, told Cowboy State Daily the benefits of an EV don’t pan out for everyone.
“You save a little on gas but my understanding is the insurance is a lot higher,” Downey said. “And because the vehicles are heavy and there’s a lot of torque, so the tires are pretty soft and sticky so you need tires pretty often. There are extra costs.”
During his six years at Ken Garff, Downey said the dealership sold Ford F-150 Lightnings and Mustang Mach-Es, both fully electric models. When asked if they were in demand, Downey had a simple answer.
“Not in Wyoming,” he said.
EVs, Downey said, are great for short drives around town. But driving long, rugged roads in the winter, he said, quickly degrades the vehicles’ battery life.
“The F150 Lightning with a big battery they said was like a 320-mile range,” Downey said. “That’s if it's 65 degrees outside, there’s no wind and you don’t need to run the heat AC or defroster.”
Last December, Ford discontinued the all-electric F-150 Lightning, which sold only a handful at a Laramie dealership serving ranchers who need to pull heavy trailers. Downey's dealership saw that gap up close. He said Ford at one point made Ken Garff buy 15 Lightnings to get the allocation for a single Raptor.
Though Downey enjoyed test-driving an F-150 Lightning for a few weeks, he doesn't expect EVs to dominate Wyoming anytime soon. He views the surge with some skepticism, noting that the 8,300 headline figure combines fully electric models with plug-in hybrids that still rely on gas.
“Hybrids a whole different ballgame, though,” Downey said. “Hybrids are pretty much the whole Toyota line these day.”
Downey couldn't weigh in on Teslas, noting he never drove one and his dealership only handled about 10 over the years.
For Patrick Lawson, who runs the charging infrastructure company Wild West EV, that limited lot exposure isn’t surprising. There are no Tesla dealerships in Wyoming, but Lawson said customers have a more direct way to buy one.
“You just order it on your phone,” Lawson said, adding that the cars can be picked up from locations in Utah or Colorado.
'You’ll Never Go Back'
Cheyenne resident Brandon Troutner didn't have to brace for jabs like Secrist's because several relatives already drive EVs. He bought his first Tesla in February, but as a Colorado native he was quick to push back on any stereotype that comes with it.
“I am not one of the leftist Coloradoans moving here to change Wyoming,” Troutner told Cowboy State Daily in a Facebook message.
He was drawn to the Tesla's self-driving technology, but said the savings have been a plus. He said he used to spend several hundred dollars a month on fuel for his full-size truck.
Cheyenne Realtor Mariah Jeffery has been driving electric longer than most in the state, having bought her first Tesla in 2018.
She said she was floored by how fast and fun it was compared to the gas car she had, and that thrill became a routine she wouldn't trade. She loves not having to stop for gas, she said, and the self-driving feature lets her stay on top of her texts and inbox while driving between showings.
“Life is too short to not have a Tesla, that's what I tell people,” Jeffery said. “Once you go to a Tesla, you will never want to go back.”
After a ride in her Tesla, Jeffery said two of her real estate clients were sold and decided to buy an EV for themselves. In the past several months, she said she's heard even more interest.
“I think it's probably driven by gas prices because people are just fed up with it,” Jeffery said. "For me, the convenience of not having to fill up with gas is more important than the savings of money.”
‘I Thought They Sucked’
While Jeffery said she now loves her Tesla with a “passion that burns from deep within my soul,” she didn’t always feel that way about EVs.
"I thought they sucked,” Jeffery said. "My mom had a hybrid and it was so pathetic. It just had no get up and go, and I thought, 'Why would anybody do this?’”
Now, Jeffery has not only made the switch herself but helped drive the state's two-year spike, buying her daughter a Tesla Model Y as a first car when she got her license last year. She also hosted a Tesla light-show party at her home last July, with the cars flashing in time to music.
She said the choice spares her the typical anxieties of parenting a new driver.
“I don't really have to have a teenage driver because the car drives itself,” Jeffery said. “It's statistically many times safer than a human driver. But when you factor in a teenage driver, I think that that's even more so.”
Tesla describes its Full Self-Driving feature as a driver assistance system that still requires drivers to pay attention. In March, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration escalated its probe of about 3.2 million Teslas with the feature over concerns it may fail to detect or warn drivers in poor visibility.
The law hasn't caught up with the technology, according to TJ Doan, a Cheyenne Tesla enthusiast who drives rideshare. He said he barely has to do anything behind the wheel of his self-driving Tesla, but he knows he's still liable for whatever happens, and he makes sure his customers understand that too.
“They always ask me, ‘Hey, if I get in drunk will my truck or my vehicle take me home?’” Doan told Cowboy State Daily. “I'm like, ‘Yes, technically, but if you get pulled over you still get a DUI because the laws haven't changed.’”
Emma Jane Jackson can be reached at emma@cowboystatedaily.com.
