Over 250,000 Public EV Chargers Operating In US Now

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If you have been following the growth of US public EV charging infrastructure, you know there has been steady expansion this last year or eighteen months. In fact, there have been dozens or more announcements about federal funding reaching some US states, but not all, for the continued installation of fast chargers along travel corridors to support long-distance driving.

There have also been announcements about retail companies installing more Level 2 and some fast chargers at shopping centers, convenience stores, restaurants, public libraries, and community centers so that people can charge and shop, dine, rest, take a walk, read a book, and so on while charging. One of the many advantages electric vehicles have is that they can be charged while the owners are doing other activities.

According to the Alternative Fuels Data Center, there are now just over 250,000 public EV charging ports in the US, at 80,531 locations. If you ask the “average Joe or Jane” on the street how many public EV charging ports there are in the US, they might not know. Some in this group might also say “not nearly enough” without knowing the exact number.

Remember when President Biden had a goal to have 500,000 public EV chargers installed by 2030? “Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced its latest actions to advance the President’s vision of building 500,000 EV chargers by 2030 and delivering a convenient, reliable, and Made-in-America electric vehicle (EV) charging network.”

The US is now at about the halfway mark to a goal that initially might have seemed out of reach or quite so. US public EV charging infrastructure continues to grow despite a pandemic, peak inflation, all sorts of fear, uncertainty and doubt, much misinformation and lies on social media, certain Republicans trying to block electric vehicles and clean energy, etc. The growth of public EV charging in the US is a success story that appears poised to continue.

There are thousands of new public EV chargers in the development pipeline not reflected in the current 250,000 public charger total, so there will be more added to it in the next year or so.

Another key point and one that may be overlooked frequently is the total number of public EV chargers is actually much less than the total number of home EV chargers. In California alone, there may be over 800,000 home chargers. If all the home EV chargers were counted in each state, and combined with all the public EV chargers, there would be well over one million EV chargers counted in the US. The home chargers are EV chargers too and should be counted in the total. If there are well over one million home and public EV chargers in the US, the total number of EV chargers may be nearly equal to the total number of gas pumps at US gas stations.

Additionally, most EV charging happens at home and the average driving distance in the US is under 40 miles per day. Daily driving trips of 100 miles or more are only about one percent of the total number of such trips. One might interpret these facts to conclude home EV charging already is sufficient for some EV owners. Further, more and more public EV chargers are frequently being installed.

One example: two months ago there were over 71,000 public fast EV chargers, and now there are already a bit over 73,000.