Upstate electric vehicle sales surge thanks to potent power, high-tech features, and improved infrastructure
Buoyed by South Carolina’s top-down commitment to expanding infrastructure and a bit of myth-busting related to their capabilities, EVs (electric vehicles) are whooshing their way onto Upstate roads, their whispering power plants bearing silent witness to the fact that they’re here to stay.
Walk onto the front lot at Carlton Mercedes-Benz on Laurens Road in Greenville, where EVs form a row unto themselves. Step out back, and you’ll find that not only do employees sell EVs, many drive them, including General Manager Matthew Scoggins.
“(EVs) represent the latest and greatest in technology,” he says, before giving a nod to performance. “If you want a fast car, an EV will put your head back in the seat. There’s no turbo lag because there’s no turbo. There are no gear changes because there are no gears. It’s super-fast, super-quiet.”
When Mercedes first delivered its fleet of all-electric EQS models to showroom floors, consumers immediately responded. “The EV customer, regardless of brand, knows what they want when they come in,” Scoggins says. “We rarely have an EV customer come in and ask to see an ‘ICE’ (internal combustion engine).”
Slip into the cockpit of an EQ sedan, and you’ll see what he means. The level of customization is astounding, with redundant touch displays for both front and rear passengers, intuitive lighting and sound systems, and the silky silence of the all-electric power train that is a feature unto itself. “It’s a computer. You’re driving a computer,” he notes. In other words, Mercedes-Benz is no longer a car manufacturer. “They’re a technology company,” Scoggins says.
Electric Vehicles Mythbusted
Lately, Scoggins spends time busting a particular myth surrounding EV tech—that you can’t find a place to charge one. It’s called “range anxiety,” the idea that your EV won’t make it to the intended destination.
“Your workplace probably has a charger, your home will have a charger . . . most people have a breaker box ready to receive a new one,” he says. “I don’t charge (my EV) but once every 10 days, unless I’m going out of town.”
But even when EV owners leave town, the infrastructure needed to sustain a charge is growing to meet demand, as are the ranges of the vehicles themselves, which average about 200 miles on a full charge, according to the latest data from US News & World Report.
Irvine, California-based Rivian, whose all-electric SUV, truck, and commercial vans are penetrating U.S. and Canadian markets via a consumer-direct sales model, has delivered about 22,000 units as of the beginning of 2023, according to Communications Specialist Miranda Jimenez.
The company also operates a network of 28 service centers throughout North America and a national network of charging stations—including a handful in South Carolina, the result of a collaboration between Rivian and the South Carolina Department of Energy on orders from Governor Henry McMaster.
Right now, Rivian operates charging systems in four South Carolina state parks: Dreher Island, Myrtle Beach, Huntington Beach, and Charles Towne Landing, with more on the way—including a charging center in the Greenville area.
Scoggins explains that Mercedes-Benz EVs come with “electrical intelligence,” meaning the cars know where they need to go to find the appropriate chargers, many that can get the car back to 100% in the time it takes to order, sit down, and eat lunch.
“The car will tell you where you need to stop and what the charge level needs to be,” he says. “So you’ll never be in a position where you can’t get the charge you need. You can leave Greenville and go to Wilmington [North Carolina], Myrtle Beach, Murrells Inlet, Pawley’s Island, Charleston, Hilton Head, Savannah . . . the beaches . . . and, even with the shortest-range EV we’ve got, you’ll have some charge left in the bank when you get there.”
But are sales trending up?
“Oh, yeah,” Scoggins shares. “Obviously, we’re moving towards a tipping point as automakers catch up with the market. And Greenville is an EV-savvy market.”
Staying Charged
Wondering how Greenville measures up in terms of EV-charging stations? To answer that question, one first must understand the differences.
According to evocharge, a Level 1 charger is usually supplied by EV dealers for new owners to take home and plug into a standard, 120-volt outlet. Bringing a dead EV to a full charge from a Level 1 can take more than two days. Meanwhile, the more robust Level 2 charger requires a 240-volt outlet, which is not always found in a residential home. But it can charge a dead EV in anywhere from four to 10 hours, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Finally, Level 3, aka Direct Current Fast or DC Fast chargers, are the most powerful and can recharge a dead EV in a half-hour or less.
Chargehub.com offers market-specific charging information, and on its maps of Greenville, there are a combined 95 public charging ports—79 offering a Level 2 charge and 16 offering a Level 3 charge.
Photography by Carlton Motorcars.
