You’ve plugged your electric vehicle into your home charger and hit the sack. Overnight, high winds topple a power line. Your charger blacks out. Then, a report of a fire, followed by an evacuation order. Your battery’s only charged to 25%. And it’s your only car.
These are the fear that some explicit California car buyers in the midst of the fires that devastated Los Angeles County and forced other people to evacuate their space at any time.
A gasoline car “can evacuate in any direction on any road while getting fuel if needed,” said Matthew Butterick, a Los Angeles attorney who lives near Griffith Park. “EV stations on evacuation runways would have large lines and delays, gas stations less. And the electric power grid would possibly not be available. Electricity corporations defuse force to trigger a chimney and so does legal liability. It’s probably the long race of all the hillside districts. »»
His emotions were taken through Val Cipollone, who lives in the wooded hills about Berkeley. It has a Nissan sheet, an entire vehicle with a fork of approximately 220 miles, which plans to sell.
“Who knows how far you drive” after a disaster, he said. “I imagine that I would only have to go to my workplace. But, who knows, I would possibly have to go much further. “
To update his EV, he said he would buy a hybrid car or a rechargeable hybrid. However, she will not be a classic gasoline car. “It’s an intelligent conscience,” he said, mentioning the environment. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable buying one. “
Fires aside, plenty of potential car buyers are attuned to Cipollone’s concerns. As U.S. sales of traditional fossil-fueled cars and light trucks plummet (down from 17 million in 2015 to 12.9 million last year), EVs and hybrids have taken off, but in the last couple of years, as EV growth has slowed, hybrids are on a tear.
Hybrid sales exceeding 63% in 2023 and 29% in 2024, 1. 8 million, according to the automotive knowledge of Edmunds. Higher electric car sales up to 45%.
While electric cars would possibly return to the sizzling expansion as the costs of the vehicles are developed and public load networks are built, the industry now seems to have exhausted the early adoption market and wishes to attract classic buyers, said the Edmunds Analyst Jessica Caldwell.
Electric cars “require another appointment with their vehicle than other people before. They require much more planning,” Caldwell said. This includes establishing a house charger, which requires an electrical update; Calculation of longer travel routes to locate where the load is available; and locate the public loaders that the paintings when loading stations are blocked or the loaders are inoperable.
This can, as a federal program of several billions of dollars to install public loaders each and every 50 miles along interstate roads, has been built over the years. If California’s plan to subsidize chargers in multifamily housing took off, and those chargers are reliable, a giant, electric cars can attract more buyers.
But for now, Caldwell said, “a lot of people are not ready to make a lifestyle change. They want to go green but maybe they’re not ready to go full electric.”
Veloz, a nonprofit group pushing the adoption of EVs, said in a statement that disasters will put “a strain on all infrastructure” and that zero-emission vehicles are key to mitigating the impacts of climate change.
“I think there’s some value in having a hybrid when you only have one car,” Margaret Mohr, communications director at Veloz, said in an interview. “However, they wouldn’t get the full benefits of an electric vehicle, and there’s still going to be long lines at the gas pump in an emergency.”
Most big auto companies, however, are hedging their bets on full electrics. Ford has slowed its EV rollouts and sped introduction of hybrid vehicles. (Already, more than 20% of Ford F-150 pickup sales are hybrids.) Hyundai, whose Ioniq 5 and other mid-priced electric cars are selling well, recently introduced what it calls the Hyundai Way program, meant to offer an array of powertrains, with an emphasis on hybrids and plug-in hybrids.
Hybrids are “a big part of our strategy,” said Randy Parker, newly named head of Hyundai and Genesis Motor’s North American operations. Hyundai hybrid sales were up 46% in 2024, while EVs rose 28%, he said. “We’re trying our best to meet customers where they are,” Parker said. The company is not giving up on EVs, he said, predicting a return to faster growth “as consumers get more comfortable with the infrastructure.”
Customers will have more choices in hybrid cars this year, said David Greene, analyst at Cars.com. A wave of new hybrid models is coming online in 2025, both traditional hybrids and plug-ins. (Both types marry a small car battery with an internal combustion engine, resulting in fewer emissions and better gasoline mileage. A traditional hybrid doesn’t need to be plugged in; it uses the gasoline engine to recharge. But it can’t run on the battery alone. A plug-in hybrid has a larger battery — typically 30 to 50 miles in range — and can power up overnight with a regular 110 volt home outlet. It can run on the battery alone until the battery is depleted and the combustion engine takes over, commuting distance for many buyers.)
Hybrid growth is driven mostly by Toyota, Greene said, and not only the Prius line — the OG of hybrid cars — but the Camry, the Highlander, the RAV4 and other popular models as well. (In fact, the Camry is available only with a hybrid powertrain.)
What effect the Los Angeles fires might have on powertrain choices is yet to be determined. “I don’t think [the fires] will have a mass effect” on EV sales, Caldwell said. However, some people will find appeal in the notion that “you have your gas tank filled, you’re out of there, and you don’t have to worry about filling up for 300 miles.”
Count Butterick among them.
“I just refueled my car,” he told The Times when the Sunset fire broke out in the Hollywood Hills last week. “I wouldn’t want to evacuate in an EV.”
Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map
Follow Us
MORE FROM THE L.A. TIMES