Consider these five electric vehicle trends

Everywhere you look today, there are new battery-powered products. From light-duty electric vehicles and electric bikes to battery-powered lawn mowers and snow blowers. Even entire delivery fleets are going electric.

As an informed and engaged citizen, you likely know about the benefits of this revolution. But there's also some conflicting information, debating everything from the viability to the power of electric vehicles (EVs). With so much info, it makes it difficult to keep it all straight.

So if you're considering an EV, here are five trends happening in the EV market you will want to know about.

Currently, EVs make up only 3-4% of the new light-duty auto market in the United States. However, industry analysts anticipate the EV market share to rise to 50 percent as early as 2030.

Since most traditional auto manufacturers still need to scramble to supply the EV demand in Europe, they continue to provide only a very limited number of EVs to the U.S. market. The good news is that this waiting game is about to change.

Tesla will be opening Giga Berlin in Germany and Giga Austin in Texas factories. When those facilities open, they will double Tesla's current production capacity. Additionally, thanks to its new Berlin factory, Tesla will no longer need to haul vehicles to the European market from the United States or China. This will enable Tesla to increase its sales dramatically here domestically.

Other manufacturers are also ramping up U.S. production, which will improve availability.

• Volvo and Polestar will start a new EV production line in South Carolina
• Volkswagen will hire 1,000 new employees to start the ID4 production in their Tennessee plant
• Ford will start manufacturing the F-150 Lightning and with a capacity to build 150,000 electric F-150s per year by mid-2023

In addition to new models, auto and battery manufacturers are also planning to open 13 new EV battery plants in the United States within the next five years to increase domestic battery supply.

All this expansion will greatly increase the availability (and, hopefully, decrease the costs) of EVs here domestically.

In 2012, a Nissan Leaf provided 73 miles of range. This was adequate for some everyday commuting and errands, but the Leaf didn’t provide much flexibility beyond that. Since then, rapid battery tech and charging infrastructure development has changed the game. Currently, the average range of new EVs sold in 2021 was over 250 miles.

The continued popularity of crossovers impacts everything across the auto market. Crossover SUVs, or CUVs, account for more than 45 percent of the new light-duty vehicles sold. That makes them the largest segment of the auto market, so it's no surprise they make up the largest portion of EV growth, as well.

This year we will see many great new additions to the crossover market: Audi Q4 e-tron, Cadillac Lyric, Kia EV 6, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Nissan Arya, and Polestar 3.

On the other side, was very little concrete movement in the electric pickup truck segment until Tesla announced the Cybertruck. Despite it's polarizing looks there are already 1.3 million Cybertruck reservation holders. We are expecting Tesla to start the Cybertruck production in 2023.

It's another American brand that's the first to start a real mass-market production of a heavy-duty truck with the F-150 Lightning.

Rivian has also made waves with the R1T truck. General Motors has brought back the Hummer brand to offer a powerful EV truck and began GMC Hummer EV production.

Going forward, we can expect bigger production and increased offerings on the horizon.

Visit EVInfoList for the most up-to-date list on EV makes and models available in the US.

Ensuring everyone can access fast, convenient EV charging, including in apartment buildings and condos, will be key as the electric vehicle revolution continues. Overnight home charging is the most convenient and affordable way to power an EV, and surveys say that more than 80 percent of charging happens at home.

Power companies, municipalities, and developers are all partnering to increase the speed and access to home charging.

In addition, federal funding will further accelerate fast-charging networks. To support sales growth in the EV market in the coming years, President Biden has set a goal of installing 500,000 public charging stations by 2030.

These efforts kicked off when the Federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was signed into law. The infrastructure bill houses the biggest national investment in electric vehicle charging yet and is a significant first step toward building a robust national charging network for all EV drivers.

One pain point of public charging has been the complexity. With multiple network setups, payment system variations, and unreliable payment hardware and software. However, a new Plug & Charge protocol will bring much-needed relief to EV drivers.

With all these changes, EV charging will soon be even easier than traditional gas car fill-ups.

For the last 10 years, there’s been hope that EVs will become power generators through mobile power sources like Vehicle to X (V2X) solutions. From EV supporting the grid with Vehicle to Grid (V2G) to EVs powering your home during power outages using Vehicle to Home (V2H) to EVs used as mobile power banks to power anything you want to do in your life, via a Vehicle to Load (V2L) setup, the EV power generation is coming.

With all these positive trends on the horizon, it’s clear we are entering a fundamental shift in the auto industry. With more models, increased charging options, and the possibility of power generation, the future of EVs is looking more powerful than ever.

Transportation electrification provides need and endless opportunities for new innovations that combine energy and transportation sectors. A lot of bright minds are needed to develop those. Shift2Electric works with the University of St Thomas School of Engineering offering a one semester graduate course exploring the key areas of the electric vehicle market and technologies. This online course provides a solid foundation for anyone considering a future career or business options with EVs and related technologies in this fast-growing field.

Author bio:

Jukka Kukkonen is an adjunct professor at the University of St Thomas in the School of Engineering. In addition, he’s the founder and chief EV educator at Shift2Electric.