What's ahead for electric vehicles?

If you’ve been on the fence about whether to get an electric vehicle, now might be a good time to buy or lease one. 

A federal tax credit that lowers the cost of EVs is set to expire at the end of September — much earlier than planned. The change is part of President Donald Trump’s major tax and spending bill, which eliminated several incentives for electric vehicles. 

EVs have come a long way in the last few years. They made up nearly 8 percent of new cars sold last year in Minnesota and more than 100 electric vehicle models are now for sale in the U.S. (A side-by-side comparison of models can be found here.)

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with her guests about how public funding changes could affect the shift to electric, if now is a good time to swap the pump for a plug, and how far you can really go on a charge.

Guests:

• Jukka Kukkonen is the founder of Shift2Electric, a Minnesota-based electric vehicle consulting and training company. He’s also an instructor at the University of St. Thomas where he teaches courses about the EV market and technologies.  

• Katelyn Bocklund is the facilitator of Drive Electric Minnesota, a coalition that works to make electric vehicles more mainstream and easier to use in Minnesota. She’s also a senior program manager of transportation at the nonprofit policy organization Great Plains Institute.   

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.   

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.