Growth in Number of EVs Continues to Outpace Growth in Number of EV Charging Stations

According to a new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIE), growth in the number of registered electric vehicles (EVs) continues to outpace the number of EV charging locations in the United States.
(The “vehicle stock data” [number of EVs] include all registered on-road, light-duty vehicles, and exclude any past vehicle sales that are no longer on the road. The EV charging location data include both private and public access stations for Legacy, Level 1, Level 2, and DC Fast charging ports. The data exclude EV chargers in single-family residences.)
In 2016, on average, according to the report, there were about 27 EVs per charging location in the United States. Alaska had the highest ratio of any state with 67 EVs per charging location, followed by California with 52 EVs per location.
In 2022, the number of registered EVs in the United States was six times greater than in 2016, increasing from 511,600 to 3.1 million. However, the number of U.S. charging locations only almost tripled, increasing from 19,178 to 55,015.
One state making more progress on charging locations than some other states is California. For example, during the same time period (2016 to 2022), the number of registered EVs in California more than quadrupled, from 247,400 to 1.1 million, while the number of charging locations tripled, from 5,486 to 14,822.
In fact, California has led the U.S.in the number of EVs and EV charging locations every year since 2016, accounting for 37 percent of U.S. registered light-duty EVs and 27 percent of EV charging locations at the end of 2022, according to new estimates from the EIA’s “State Energy Data System.”
California’s share of U.S. EV registrations decreased in recent years as EV adoption spread around the country. In 2016, California had about 48 percent of light-duty EVs in the United States, which was about 12 times more than the state with the second-most EVs, Georgia. In 2022, California had about 37 percent of U.S. light-duty EVs, which was about six times more than the state with the second-most EVs, Florida.