Electric vehicle (EV) production is already big in Tennessee. More Tennesseeans are driving them, and a statewide group has big plans for EV expansion in the next 10 years.
A recent report from Drive Electric Tennessee (DET) shows the state’s EV landscape has “changed dramatically” since its first report in 2019. The updated “roadmap” plan hopes to drive jobs, vehicles, and charging infrastructure statewide.
If the group hits its 2035 goals, Tennessee would see:
• 740,000 more consumer EVs on the road
• 1,500 more medium and heavy duty trucks
• 1,000 electric passenger vehicles (such as school buses and shuttle buses)
• 5,000 light duty fleet EVs (such as delivery vans)
• 22,000 charging stations added across Tennessee.
Many of these goals are based on the rise of EVs in Tennessee since 2019. That year, DET reported 5,000 EVs were registered in the state. By the end of 2025, the group found that more than 68,000 EVs had been registered in Tennessee.
About 5 percent of all new vehicles purchased in Tennessee that year were EVs, the report said, ranking Tennessee fourth among six Southern states in EV market share.
Tennessee is also an EV production hub. The Nissan plant in Smyrna made the Leaf EV from 2013 to 2025, making Tennessee home to the one of the longest-running EV assembly operations in the country.
Volkswagen operates an EV plant in Chattanooga and General Motors makes EVs and batteries in Spring Hill. Ford was set to produce its electric Lightning F-150 in West Tennessee before the automaker changed course to make gas-powered trucks there, instead. However, Korean-owned SK On will produce electric batteries on the site.
Charging infrastructure has grown rapidly in the state, as well. As of March 2023, Tennessee had 26 public fast-charging locations, according to the state of Tennessee.
DET’s goal of 22,000 public and private charging stations is built on its goal of adding 750,000 new EVS in Tennessee by 2035. The number of stations needed was based on analysis by the National Laboratory of the Rockies.
Some of the work is already underway. The Fast Charge TN Network project would add 65 new charging stations, one along every 50 miles of Tennessee’s interstates and major highways. That network is a partnership between the Tennessee Department of Conservation and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
DET is a collaboration of 30 partners from across the state. Memphis is represented in the group by Memphis. Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) and the Memphis-Shelby County Office of Sustainability and Resilience.