Portland, Maine: A Small City With Big Ambitions To Go Green

Why are there no EVs in Maine?

As Ms. Puser put it,

Cold weather is an issue, the demographics of the state are an issue, and policy support is an issue.

Blame the cold weather that bleeds EV batteries, blame the small population, blame the average age of people in the state, blame the average income of the people in Maine, blame state funding issues, blame the rural nature of the state, blame the priorities of the car manufactures — after all there are only a limited amount of EVs rolling off the production lines, and they aren’t heading for places like Maine

In some states businesses are adopting private EV chargers to be placed in their parking lots. This is a great idea to attract EV drivers to business, while the EV owner shops at the store their car is being charged in the parking lot. The catch here however is the need to have a population of people who are driving EVs; a population that Maine does not have. There are two EV charging stations currently in the Bar Harbor Maine, however according to the Electric Vehicle Feasibility Study in Maine the owners of the chargers are unknown as stated in the report,

“We know of two EV charging stations that are currently in the Bar Harbor region, but we do not know who owns them”. — Electric Vehicle Feasibility Study in Maine section 3b page 4.

Yet, Mainers do want EVs, and as The Electric Vehicle Feasibility Study shows, having access to public charging is a key component and incentive for people in Maine to buy EVs. The results of survey data conducted as part of the Electric Vehicle Feasibility Study overwhelmingly support this:

Would you be more willing to purchase a Plug-in Hybrid or Electric Vehicle if there were a network of public charging stations already in place?

The overwhelming majority of respondents indicate they would be more willing to purchase a Plug-in Hybrid or Electric Vehicle if there were a network of public charging stations already in place.   

From The Electric Vehicle Feasibility Study in Maine, page 24.

The History of EVs in Maine:

Maine has no state tax credit for buyers of EVs. A bill was introduced to provide in additional to the federal tax credit a state tax credit but did not pass. The Maine state budget is tight so there is not much wiggle room as of now in new expenditures. Interestingly enough, there was state tax credit for hybrid cars in Maine’s history and Maine does have a history of EVs as detailed in the Electric Vehicle Feasibility Study.

Maine’s history with EVs dates back to the 1990s when funding was made available through the Northern Region Thermal Management Technology Project. As part of the project a 1996 Solectria Force EV was purchased and used to test the feasibility of operating an EV in the Maine climate. Participants in the project drove the EV and kept detailed logs and took part in public education activities to educate the public on the benefits and positive use of EVs. Yet, when the funding ended and the project came to a close so did the conversion about EV use in Maine.

The 1990s also saw the state of Maine implement a state tax credit for consumers who bought early models of hybrid vehicles. That state tax credit no long exists.

Additionally, in the 1990s the Greater Portland METRO had three small electric buses in operation as part of a pilot program. During the program the METRO purchased five more buses and, for a time, Maine had the largest EV bus fleet in the northeast. Soon after the additional EV bus purchases, the  EV bus pilot program in Maine was shutdown when the bus management company was changed.

Currently, Central Maine Power (CMP), the utility for the Greater Portland region is embarking on three EV pilot programs aimed at increasing the use of plug in hybrids and EVs in Maine. However, there currently is no regional, local, or even statewide plan related to EVs in Maine.

Defiantly a sad decline in what was once a blossoming program that for many Mainers was centered on environmental issues. It is interesting how the EV mindset has changed. Granted, for some people the driving factor in purchasing an EV is because EVs are better for the environment. But, arguably, for the majority of EV drivers it is the high cost of gas that pushed consumers from their SUVs into EVs.

The Future of EVs in Maine

The good news is that the Electric Vehicle Feasibility Study in Maine has led to other opportunities for the state. Maine has recently joined other Northeastern States in another study, funded again by a federal grant, which will be more in depth than the Electric Vehicle Feasibility Study in Maine. The freshly established Northeast Electric Vehicle Network’s goal is to contribute towards 20% or 200,000 EVs, to the 1 million EVs set to be on the roads in America by 2015.

One of the big questions to be tackled by the next study is what the barriers to putting in public EV chargers are. For Maine one of the major sticking points, revealed by the Electric Vehicle Feasibility Study in Maine, is the lack of EVs. Other barriers reveled by the Electric Vehicle Feasibility Study in Maine include:

Among the concerns and potential barriers associated with Plug-in Hybrids and Electric Vehicles listed below, please adjust the sliders to indicate how much they would factor in your decision-making process to purchase a Plug-in Hybrid or Electric Vehicle.

Question 9 asked respondents to rate how the above concerns might factor into their decision to purchase a Plug-in Hybrid or Electric Vehicle.  Respondents used a slider to show on a scale of 0-10 –with 10 being a ‘critical factor’- which concerns weigh most heavily.  The average value (highlighted in yellow in the table above) was then used to rank order the responses from most to least critical -the average value is also represented in the graph above.  As is evident, ‘accessibility of charging infrastructure’ (7.68) is the most critical factor in respondents’ decision-making process, closely followed by ‘price’ (7.51), ‘vehicle range’ (7.47), ‘cold weather performance’ (7.43) and (5.5) ‘availability of vehicles’.  The only factor that respondents do not appear to be too concerned about is having a charging station in their garage (3.35).         

From the Electric Vehicle Feasibility Study in Maine page 26 – 27.

All in all, the wheels are in motion in the great State of Maine and the reality of public EV chargers within the state will eventually come to fruition. The Electric Vehicle Feasibility Study in Maine was a step in the right direction and exposed issues that now can be further studied as Maine joins other Northeastern States in the effort to make the switch to an electric vehicles friendly infrastructure.

Andrew Meggison was born in the state of Maine and educated in Massachusetts. Andrew earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Government and International Relations from Clark University and a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Northeastern University. Being an Eagle Scout, Andrew has a passion for all things environmental. In his free time Andrew enjoys writing, exploring the great outdoors, a good film, and a creative cocktail. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AndrewMeggison

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