More people turning to electric vehicles as gas prices go up over the years

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — When Duane Ediger gets into his electric car and turns it on, he has one goal in mind: minimize the amount of carbon he uses.

His electric car is also helping him save money, Ediger saying he used to spend about $1500 a year on gas.

However, electric vehicles are also driving his passion to help the environment.

“We’re not burning oil. We’re not going through other things that have to be done with a gas car,” Ediger said.

However, you might not see cars that use gas on the road as often.

The U.S. Department of Energy said in 2016, there were about 4,700 electric vehicles registered in Arizona. In 2021, that number went up ten times to about 40,700 electric vehicles.

Ediger said what could be fueling that is the lower costs to maintain an electric vehicle.

“Even though you pay more when you purchase a new brand E.V., that savings on an annual basis makes it pay off in a few years,” he said.

The City of Tucson is also investing in EVs, pushing for all of their light duty vehicle fleets to be electric by the year 2030.

Before that happens, they said there are over 100 EV chargers available to the public in the Tucson area.

Matthew Franz also owns an electric vehicle but doesn’t use the City’s chargers because he has one at home.

“You just plug it when you get home and you forget about it and the next day you take off,” Franz said.

He said the City should help residents with EVs who don’t own a home.

“Promote some kind of incentive for say apartment buildings to install charging for their residents,” he said.

A City of Tucson representative said they don’t have any incentives for residents right now, but are looking at incentives for delivery companies and small businesses and are hoping to have that within ten years.

Franz is hoping the State of Arizona could put more charging stations across Arizona.

“Everywhere that there’s a gas station there could be a charging station,” he said.

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