Electric Car Spotting in Lubbock 2013-2019
Here at 2Wheels, we love electric cars. Any car that runs without a tailpipe and runs on renewable energy - that's good stuff! The electric car is not the weapon to fight climate change, but one of many steps to get us closer to a livable world.
But here in Lubbock, the electric wheels have turned slowly.
I've kept a daily watch for electric cars in Lubbock several years now. Three years ago I was starting to get excited. I was seeing more and more - three to four per day. In a town with a quarter million people, it may not sound like much, but it was a start.
Lately, though, it's been slipping. I've been mostly seeing one per day. There has been a big shift in what I'm seeing. Now I see more Teslas than Leafs and Volts. My daily spotting is scattered pretty evenly among the Tesla Models 3, S, and X. I've been driving a lot more lately. I've been amazed at how few electric cars I've seen.
I've also been surprised at how few second-generation Nissan Leafs and Chevy Volts have appeared. Just as surprising, I've seen only one Chevy Bolt. I've been less surprised that I've seen no electric Smart Cars or Fiat 500e's.
Yesterday, I was pretty excited when I went to pick a family member up at the hospital - predominantly because that person (whom I adore) was getting to come home, but secondarily because I saw two electric cars. The first was a Model S near the mall. The second was a first-generation Leaf leaving the hospital. Pretty cool - and that was just one trip.
I parked and went up to the room. Time passed. I came back to my car and drove it across the parking lot to the hospital front entrance. In that short drive I spotted a plug-in hybrid, a Prius Prime - only the second I've seen. Woohoo! A little farther along I spotted an electric motorcycle, a Zero S. One row away I saw a new Leaf. Holy moly - three plug-in vehicles in one parking lot and another that I had seen leaving the parking lot.
But I should not have been surprised. Over the years I've noticed that medical professionals (and educators) gravitate toward healthier vehicles. I tend to see more EVs when I'm on the Texas Tech campus and when I am near a hospital. The only BMW i8 have seen here belongs to a pair of doctors who also have a pair of BMW i3s. Last year I almost had an eco-friendly close encounter with a Model S leaving the doctor's garage (rapidly) at Covenant Lakeside. (I was on my plug-in bicycle.)
This past weekend, I was surprised to see an electric-car article on the front page of the local paper. The article had few surprises. There were interviews with a few local Tesla owners, a little information on the lack of public charging stations, and the belief that we won't embrace electric cars around here until they get bigger and better able to haul stuff and people.
But, we still have the $7500 federal tax incentive and the $1500 state rebate here in Texas, so EV prices don't create much sticker shock if you're familiar with average new car prices. And cars like the Tesla Model 3, the Chevy Bolt, and the latest version of the Nissan Leaf have enough range to make road tripping very possible.
But here in Lubbock, the electric wheels have turned slowly.
Last Sunday's front page
I've kept a daily watch for electric cars in Lubbock several years now. Three years ago I was starting to get excited. I was seeing more and more - three to four per day. In a town with a quarter million people, it may not sound like much, but it was a start.
Lately, though, it's been slipping. I've been mostly seeing one per day. There has been a big shift in what I'm seeing. Now I see more Teslas than Leafs and Volts. My daily spotting is scattered pretty evenly among the Tesla Models 3, S, and X. I've been driving a lot more lately. I've been amazed at how few electric cars I've seen.
I've also been surprised at how few second-generation Nissan Leafs and Chevy Volts have appeared. Just as surprising, I've seen only one Chevy Bolt. I've been less surprised that I've seen no electric Smart Cars or Fiat 500e's.
Yesterday, I was pretty excited when I went to pick a family member up at the hospital - predominantly because that person (whom I adore) was getting to come home, but secondarily because I saw two electric cars. The first was a Model S near the mall. The second was a first-generation Leaf leaving the hospital. Pretty cool - and that was just one trip.
I parked and went up to the room. Time passed. I came back to my car and drove it across the parking lot to the hospital front entrance. In that short drive I spotted a plug-in hybrid, a Prius Prime - only the second I've seen. Woohoo! A little farther along I spotted an electric motorcycle, a Zero S. One row away I saw a new Leaf. Holy moly - three plug-in vehicles in one parking lot and another that I had seen leaving the parking lot.
But I should not have been surprised. Over the years I've noticed that medical professionals (and educators) gravitate toward healthier vehicles. I tend to see more EVs when I'm on the Texas Tech campus and when I am near a hospital. The only BMW i8 have seen here belongs to a pair of doctors who also have a pair of BMW i3s. Last year I almost had an eco-friendly close encounter with a Model S leaving the doctor's garage (rapidly) at Covenant Lakeside. (I was on my plug-in bicycle.)
This past weekend, I was surprised to see an electric-car article on the front page of the local paper. The article had few surprises. There were interviews with a few local Tesla owners, a little information on the lack of public charging stations, and the belief that we won't embrace electric cars around here until they get bigger and better able to haul stuff and people.
One other thing that surprised me in the article was how little was mentioned about price and range anxiety being a hindrance to Lubbockites choosing electric cars. That's encouraging! For many years those were the biggies in EV articles.
After 2016, I have posted less about EV sightings here. There are enough electric cars around that they're not too rare, and there are enough plug-in hybrids to make it hard to keep up with them. And that's good news, but it would sure be nice for electric cars to truly become unremarkable as you drive around our dusty town.
If you're curious about electric car posts that reach outside the Lubbock area, be sure to check out our collected electric car posts:
I'm sure you've had enough Lubbock EV talk for now. Now it's time for me to wrap this post up and hop on my EV and pedal off into the sunrise. May clean transportation thrive in your landscape, and may we all breathe free. Be well, my friends!
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