Sales at traditional dealerships lag behind similarly sized cities such as Milwaukee, Nashville

Nationwide, 55 percent of new car dealers are selling electric vehicles, while in Cincinnati, that number is 48.2 percent, according to ISeeCars.com, an online automotive search engine and research website. That puts Cincinnati at No. 92 out of 132 metro areas. The figures exclude Tesla stores.

When it came to growth in the number of new car dealers selling electric vehicles, Cincinnati ranked 129th.

Legendary Cincinnati car dealer Jeff Wyler said the demand has not been there.

“There’s a lot of talk about electrics,” Wyler told the Business Courier last year. “And the electrics are not selling. They’re just standing on the lots. So it appears that our government is trying to force electrics on consumers, and consumers aren’t buying yet.”

The story for used car dealers is a bit different. Nearly 32 percent of local used car dealers are selling electric vehicles, putting the region 33rd in the country.

In terms of growth rate, Cincinnati ranked 98th.

Still, selling electric vehicles as a mass market product is relatively new. Before 2021, only 16.5 percent of non-Tesla new car dealers were selling electric vehicles. Larger dealers are more likely than smaller dealers to have them. And three years ago, most brands did not offer an electric vehicle.

ISeeCars analyzed the inventories of new and used car dealers to produce this data. Non-Tesla electric vehicles comprise about 5 percent of all U.S. vehicle sales, up from 0.5 of a percent in 2020.

Cincinnati lags behind other similarly sized cities. In Milwaukee, 72.5 percent of new car dealers sell EVs, while 64 percent do in Kansas City and 66 percent do in Nashville. All three of those peer cities are in the top 10 nationwide.

Karl Brauer, an executive analyst for ISeeCars, said Cincinnati likely trails other cities for a number of reasons: weather, economic circumstances, cost and conservative politics.

“You have people who will not buy an electric vehicle under any circumstances. You have people who that’s all they’ll buy,” Brauer said. “EVs can be a tougher sell in colder climates because of the reduced range and performance when it gets cold. You can’t blame the dealers or the residents for being hesitant. Economic circumstances can play a role. If you’re looking at two similar vehicles … the electric will cost more.”

Greg Joseph with the Joseph Auto Group said people should not think Cincinnati dealers don’t have EVs for sale. In reality, it’s been about a year since non-Tesla EVs came into the mainstream, so nobody should expect them to make up a high volume of sales at this point. Customers are interested in them and asking about them, and Joseph believes the EV segment will continue to grow locally.

So-called mileage or range anxiety also is a factor. It takes 10 minutes for someone to go to a gas station and fill their car with gas. The same process with an electric vehicle could take an hour, depending on the location of the station, whether there’s a line to use it and what kind of charging infrastructure it has.

“It currently is the No. 1 issue with electric cars. I think it will be the hardest one to overcome,” Brauer said. “If you want to have electric cars as dominant, you have to do more.”

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