Electric vehicles had a big year in 2023, hitting nearly 10% sales in the US, as more options and better deals convince new buyers to make the switch.
But adoption rates vary drastically by region, driven by state incentives, regional climates, culture differences, and varying levels of political support for alternatively fueled vehicles.
As plug-ins become more commonplace, I wanted to get a better idea of why these EV hotspots and deserts exist, so I asked my colleague Alistair Barr in Silicon Valley if he would do a little experiment with me: We would each drive a Tesla for a week in our respective cities and compare the experience.
The San Francisco Bay Area and Detroit make for a good comparison, given a strong EV culture in Silicon Valley and California overall, versus Detroit's ingrained car culture as the home to the Big Three automakers.
Both cities are car-infrastructure heavy, making our experiences comparable from a day-to-day perspective. After five days with our respective Model 3s (mine rented from Hertz, and Alistair's borrowed from friends) we sat down to compare our experiences: