Electric vehicles make sense in Kansas City today — and they’re only getting better | Opinion

For the past seven years, both my wife and I have owned electric vehicles. We love driving them, and I’d like to take a moment to tell you why.

EVs are good for our household’s bottom line. The cost equivalent for a gallon of gas for an EV is about a dollar. Ask yourself when was the last time you paid $1 for a gallon of gas? I’m guessing it’s been decades. In addition, electric vehicles are easier and cheaper to maintain. For example, there are no oil changes for an EV.

And the positive economic benefits of EVs are happening all over Kansas City. The new Panasonic battery plant in DeSoto is a $4 billion investment. Ford is selling the U.S. Postal Service 9,250 E-Transit vans built right here at the Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo. And GM is investing $391 million in its Fairfax plant in KCK to build electric vehicles.

We love the ease of charging our cars. We charge them overnight in our garage. That means we never go to a gas station and wait. And our recent record cold snap? We didn’t have to freeze waiting to gas up. We were safely and soundly asleep in our warm home while our EV’s charged.

We get questions from friends about their reliability, especially with the recent cold wave. In all honesty, we haven’t had a single issue with either of our vehicles in either the winter chill or summer heat. One of the largest adopters of EVs in the world is Norway. In November 2023, 90% of Norway’s passenger auto registrations were EVs. Yes, 90%.

I am thrilled to say that I am now working to tout the benefits of EV’s in my role as a consultant for the new Plug-In KC initiative Transportation makes up 34% of greenhouse gas emissions in our region. Knowing this, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Climate Action KC launched Plug-In KC to support the transition to more electric vehicles. This effort is tasked with scaling up EVs and the infrastructure needed to support them.

Our friends at Evergy have been an early partner in this effort. As Evergy and other electricity providers move to renewable sources, the carbon impact of EVs fueled by these resources will continue to lessen over time.

We have an enormous natural resource in our region — it’s called wind. It’s 100% renewable and it’s right here in our backyard. Kansas ranks second in the nation for wind energy production as a share of total electricity generation. Wind has become the biggest power generator in Kansas since 2019, often making up more than 40% of the energy in the state. And as wind expands, solar is also becoming a larger source of local energy. This is renewable, emission-free energy.

Electric vehicles are not perfect. However, technological improvements on these fronts are moving quickly in the right direction. For example, nearly half of the vehicles produced by Tesla in the first quarter of 2023 were equipped with nickel- and cobalt-free batteries. While performance increases and changes to more sustainable battery components will continue at a very fast clip, it’s important to remember that EVs are already much more sustainable than internal combustion engine vehicles.

Kansas Citians should be excited and proud of the benefits EVs have brought to our community and will continue bring in the coming decades. Electric vehicles are creating substantial high-paying jobs, are being powered by much cleaner power sources than gasoline, and are producing zero tailpipe emissions. No, they aren’t the perfect tool for every job — yet. But this rapidly improving technology is essential as we transition from fossil fuels to renewable power made right here in America’s heartland.

James Green is a Kansas City public policy consultant. He previously served as director of government relations for the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.