SF Bay Area makes history with 50% new electric or hybrid vehicle registrations in 1 month
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The San Francisco Bay Area is making headlines for positive reasons.
The Bay Area recently made history in the US. For the month of March, it was the first-ever major American metro area where 50% of new car registrations were either electric or hybrid vehicles.
"I think quite frankly this is something for San Francisco to be very proud of," said vehicle researcher Tom Libby with S&P Global Mobility.
If it seems like you're seeing more new Teslas and Prius' on the road here in the San Francisco Bay Area, experts say it's because you are.
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"The gas mileage is great," said Hieu Le who owns a Prius.
"I'm not surprised, with the price of gas nowadays," said James Duhamel who owns a hybrid vehicle.
"The EV buyer skews towards generally more Asian. The EV buyer also skews towards younger and more towards higher income and when we look towards those demographics for San Francisco there was a good fit with the EV buyers," said Libby.
But while electric vehicle prices have come down, they're still more expensive.
S&P found that the top percentages of electric vehicles were in wealthy cities outside of San Francisco, but still in the Bay Area.
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"If you own an electric car, typically it's pricier so people in areas where maybe it's less, they have less money. They probably won't have the ability to get an electric car," said Raisa Deoteale whose family owns an electric vehicle.
This means that we're making strides, but not everyone is in the market to buy one yet.
"Actually the percentage of households that buy an EV with a household income above $200,000 is substantially higher than the percentage for the normal new vehicle purchase," said Libby.
Libby does say that with more electric vehicles headed to the road, the prices will continue to drop, and just getting to this point is an accomplishment.
The S&P Global Mobility statistics can be found here: https://www.spglobal.com/mobility/en/research-analysis/firstever-major-us-metro-area-hits-50-electrified-vehicle-regi.html
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