diff --git a/sumpy/expansion/local.py b/sumpy/expansion/local.py
index 884332572d94e7dfbb11f5a5797227fb2e33737f..809120776b79e518e4e8727dc9bcf94fa9082c55 100644
--- a/sumpy/expansion/local.py
+++ b/sumpy/expansion/local.py
@@ -130,10 +130,10 @@ class VolumeTaylorLocalExpansionBase(LocalExpansionBase):
         evaluated_coeffs = (
             self.derivative_wrangler.get_full_kernel_derivatives_from_stored(
                 coeffs, rscale))
-        bvec = [sym.UnevaluatedExpr(b * rscale**-1) for b in bvec]
+        bvec = bvec * rscale**-1
         result = sum(
                 coeff
-                * mi_power(bvec, mi)
+                * mi_power(bvec, mi, evaluate=False)
                 / mi_factorial(mi)
                 for coeff, mi in zip(
                         evaluated_coeffs, self.get_full_coefficient_identifiers()))
diff --git a/sumpy/symbolic.py b/sumpy/symbolic.py
index c7ed61e60c937cd18020b1ced0bd9629c5a0aa30..1ddfb8765cdca703d35111691b89b8691410563f 100644
--- a/sumpy/symbolic.py
+++ b/sumpy/symbolic.py
@@ -111,6 +111,13 @@ if not have_unevaluated_expr:
         return x
 
 
+if USE_SYMENGINE:
+    def UnevaluatedPow(a, b):
+        return Pow(a, b)
+else:
+    def UnevaluatedPow(a, b):
+        return Pow(a, b, evaluate=False)
+
 # {{{ debugging of sympy CSE via Maxima
 
 class _DerivativeKiller(IdentityMapperBase):
diff --git a/sumpy/tools.py b/sumpy/tools.py
index 469cb5e15238299092d55841f2bf43486bd11e0c..4e71c43ccf70b62749922caa120b05730544fd1e 100644
--- a/sumpy/tools.py
+++ b/sumpy/tools.py
@@ -55,10 +55,13 @@ def mi_factorial(mi):
     return result
 
 
-def mi_power(vector, mi):
+def mi_power(vector, mi, evaluate=True):
     result = 1
     for mi_i, vec_i in zip(mi, vector):
-        result *= vec_i**mi_i
+        if evaluate:
+            result *= vec_i**mi_i
+        else
+            result *= sym.UnevaluatedPow(vec_i, mi_i)
     return result