EVS Boom in Central Oregon

The number of electric vehicles registered in Deschutes County has been climbing by the thousands each year. State officials say that trend might be strong enough to continue, even with a loss of federal incentives for buying electric cars.

According to the Oregon Electric Vehicle Dashboard, nearly 8,000 EVs are registered in Deschutes County. That number has roughly doubled since 2023, and is up from a just few hundred a decade ago. Deschutes County boasts the fifth-highest ratio of EVs per capita, with 38 per 1,000 people, on par with the state’s largest metropolitan centers.

“Compared to a lot of the rest of the United States, it’s very strong adoption trends,” said Jessica Reichers, technology and policy manager with the Oregon Department of Energy. “Deschutes County has adoption trends ranking up there with the rest of the state.”

Implementing EVs

While EV trends are strong, according to state reports, the total number of electric cars — about 140,000 — is falling well short of the 250,000 goal the state set for 2025.

For the state, implementing EVs — or what the state calls “zero-emission vehicles” — will be critical to meeting goals to reduce greenhouse gas pollution driving climate change.

For Deschutes County, the increase in numbers is notable partially because Bend, Central Oregon’s largest city, didn’t even have a public vehicle charging station until the late 2010s, Reichers said.

Now there are dozens across the city and more in Redmond, Sisters, La Pine, Prineville and up and down the U.S. Highway 97 and U.S. Highway 20 corridors.

“I haven’t heard any complaints about driving your EV to or from Bend for a very long time,” Reichers said. “That, at least anecdotally, tells me the charging infrastructure is really starting to take root out there.”

According to Reichers, EV charging stations have expanded across Oregon and helped ease some rural Oregonians’ concerns about owning electric vehicles.

Higher salaries

Another possible driver of Deschutes County’s EV boom? Higher salaries.

Data from across the state shows the two are correlated: counties with higher median incomes usually have higher rates of electric vehicles.

Deschutes County has the highest average income of any county in Oregon, at $87,000, about $16,000 higher than the state average, according to data from the Oregon Employment Department and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, reported by the Oregonian earlier this year.

The state’s EV dashboard breaks down the price differences. In one example, the average MSRP for an EV is about $37,390, while a gas-powered vehicle is $20,500. According to the dashboard, gas vehicles have a range of about 400 miles per fill-up, while EVs can travel 258 miles in one charge. EVs have more horsepower, while fuel costs for an EV are about 20 cents to every doller spent on gasoline.

More vehicle types

Another draw for people in places like Bend and Deschutes County is that there are more vehicle types, like trucks, available as EVs, Reichers said.

Since 2022, nearly 200 Ford F-150 Lightning trucks have been registered in Deschutes County, along with nearly the same number of Rivian R1T trucks.

There are 17 Tesla Cybertrucks registered in Deschutes County. Teslas account for about one-third of EVs in the county, a slightly higher proportion than the state. The most popular Tesla in Deschutes County is the Model Y, with more than 1,400 registrations countywide.

Low and moderate-income Oregonians can get $7,500 tax credits from the state through the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s Charge Ahead Rebate. But last year, the Trump Administration’s executive orders pulled federal rebates for electric vehicles and halted funding for nationwide charging infrastructure.

Oregon saw a big drop-off in EV registrations when the federal rebates expired last fall, Reichers said. But then, gas prices shot up amid the United States’ war with Iran, and registrations started to tick up again.

It still remains to be seen what the end result will be, Reichers said. “What we’re waiting on now is to see how these two opposing forces end up affecting the EV market going forward,” Reichers said.

This article appears in High Desert Horsepower, Fall 2026.