Charging stations per capita by US state

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cwerdna

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Location
SF Bay Area, CA
https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/articles/fotw-1169-january-18-2021-vermont-had-highest-number-public-electric-vehicle
The number of public electric vehicle (EV) chargers across the country has been growing. As of November 2020, Vermont had the highest number of public chargers per capita with 114 EV chargers per 100,000 people, followed by the District of Columbia (81) and California (72). Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia had more than 20 chargers per 100,000 people.
Story also has a graph. The bottom three on this metric are Alabama, Louisiana and Alaska.

Discuss. :)

Also, post updates to this metric or similar ones here.
 
cwerdna said:
https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/articles/fotw-1169-january-18-2021-vermont-had-highest-number-public-electric-vehicle
The number of public electric vehicle (EV) chargers across the country has been growing. As of November 2020, Vermont had the highest number of public chargers per capita with 114 EV chargers per 100,000 people, followed by the District of Columbia (81) and California (72). Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia had more than 20 chargers per 100,000 people.
Story also has a graph. The bottom three on this metric are Alabama, Louisiana and Alaska.

Discuss. :)

Also, post updates to this metric or similar ones here.
Vermont may have the most public chargers per capita, but finding DCFC is not easy- there are a few here and there. The most amazing one I have seen is in Brattleboro, a Tesla station with about 8 (or maybe more) of those beautiful sculpted fast chargers at which I have never seen more than 2 Teslas and most of the time there are no cars there (this includes pre-Covid observations- not SUPPOSED to travel here from out of State now...). A bit frustrating for any non-Tesla EVs looking for a quick charge.
 
Surprised that WA and OR aren't higher up on this list.

This list isn't very satisfying, provides more questions than answers to my mind...

I would like to see separate stats for L2 and L3, per capita. For me, L3 charging density equates to longer road trip opportunities, while L2 is almost always a bonus when free, but otherwise of little interest. Obviously though, given no other options, I'll pay for L2 charging if I really need it! For condo owners though, the opposite is likely true as they can't L2 home charge.

For road tripping, I'm interested to see per capita stats for L3 chargers, per state, within 20 miles of major highways and Interstates. That would definitely influence my decision on where to vacation, if I had a longer range EV. For instance, once I own a >40 kWh EV, I would love to travel to Utah, but only if the L3 charging density makes that trip stress free.

Before COVID, my family and I would venture down to Whidbey Island, Bellingham, and Seattle on occasion too. I've thought about going as far as the Oregon coast, but that's really stretching it - too tedious with a 24 kWh pack, ruins the enjoyment of the trip...
 
alozzy said:
Surprised that WA and OR aren't higher up on this list.
I took at look at why VT might be so high on the list. Its population is only about 623K. DC has 692K and is #2 on the list. Both of these are about 1/3 of my county in California.

WA has 7.615 million and OR has 4.218 million.
 
cwerdna said:
alozzy said:
Surprised that WA and OR aren't higher up on this list.
I took at look at why VT might be so high on the list. Its population is only about 623K. DC has 692K and is #2 on the list. Both of these are about 1/3 of my county in California.

WA has 7.615 million and OR has 4.218 million.

If you consider that in Vermont more than half of my local public chargers are Tesla (one bank of 8 in a town with 3 other chargers, one of which is DCFC), and consider Tesla chargers as maybe 1/2 a charger because they are not useful to half the EVs, then Vermont is going to drop to about one charger per 80 people or so, makes more sense from my perspective as one who has been caught on the freeway in Vermont more than once looking for electricity.... but yes to the central point cwerdna Vermont is a tiny state! and another number: our local school district has 138 students, yours probably has more students than Vermont has people!
 
dmacarthur said:
our local school district has 138 students, yours probably has more students than Vermont has people!
Wow. My local high school had at one point over 1,900 students. My school district apparently has 30K students but there are multiple school districts for my city.

My county is almost two million people, so that's much larger than your state in population.

update: Fixed typo/mistake about my county's population.
 
cwerdna said:
dmacarthur said:
our local school district has 138 students, yours probably has more students than Vermont has people!
Wow. My local high school had at one point over 1,900 students. My school district apparently has 30K students but there are multiple school districts for my city.

My county is almost a million people so, that's much larger than your state in population.

Yup- we have about 40 high school kids the rest are pre-K thru 8..... they know each other pretty well!
 
dmacarthur said:
cwerdna said:
https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/articles/fotw-1169-january-18-2021-vermont-had-highest-number-public-electric-vehicle
The number of public electric vehicle (EV) chargers across the country has been growing. As of November 2020, Vermont had the highest number of public chargers per capita with 114 EV chargers per 100,000 people, followed by the District of Columbia (81) and California (72). Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia had more than 20 chargers per 100,000 people.
Story also has a graph. The bottom three on this metric are Alabama, Louisiana and Alaska.

Discuss. :)

Also, post updates to this metric or similar ones here.
Vermont may have the most public chargers per capita, but finding DCFC is not easy- there are a few here and there. The most amazing one I have seen is in Brattleboro, a Tesla station with about 8 (or maybe more) of those beautiful sculpted fast chargers at which I have never seen more than 2 Teslas and most of the time there are no cars there (this includes pre-Covid observations- not SUPPOSED to travel here from out of State now...). A bit frustrating for any non-Tesla EVs looking for a quick charge.

Vermont has a few obscure CHAdeMO-only EVgos. They were installed before CCS was finalized and never upgraded. Now that I drive a CCS car, this really irks me. I've pestered EVgo to upgrade them (at least add a CCS handle). They responded to my query, but didn't acknowledge my actual question (some cookie-cutter answer like "we have plans to install over 2700 new chargers - stay tuned!").

White River junction would be a great place for an EA station, and I think the I-89 corridor was in their plans for cycle II (through 12/31/21). So far their only plans for VT is Burlington (technically Colchester).

But Vermont has it easy to be #1 per capita, with the lowest population of any state (plus a green-minded population at that). I think the most impressive (but unsurprising) state is California. For the largest state in the Union, it ranks incredibly high. My own state of NY is not doing too poorly for our large population. But we have a long way to go.
 
Even in CA there are very underserved areas with little to no infrastructure, so it really depends on where you are.

Places like Mojave are going to have lots of chargers compared to how tiny the town is, because its a important nexus point. But other areas along certain routes are not even covered yet. 395 is finally "Covered" by EA, but I still wouldn't trust single point of failure routes. IF even one EA station is down along 395, you are screwed. That will change as more come online, such as Chargepoint and EVConnect as part CA program, plus a few should come online EVENTUALLY as part of the Caltrans program.
 
danrjones said:
Even in CA there are very underserved areas with little to no infrastructure, so it really depends on where you are.

Places like Mojave are going to have lots of chargers compared to how tiny the town is, because its a important nexus point. But other areas along certain routes are not even covered yet. 395 is finally "Covered" by EA, but I still wouldn't trust single point of failure routes. IF even one EA station is down along 395, you are screwed. That will change as more come online, such as Chargepoint and EVConnect as part CA program, plus a few should come online EVENTUALLY as part of the Caltrans program.

It's true. Most people think of LA or the Bay Area when they think of California. There are also tiny towns way out in the middle of nowhere. Towns like Ridgecrest ;)

But that's true of every state. Contrary to popular opinion, New York is not one giant sprawling metropolis. Most of the population of the state actually does not live in NYC. Upstate, there are a few major cities but it is mostly small towns and farm land. Up here, charging stations are few and far between.
 
LeftieBiker said:
More accurately, upstate there are almost enough (L-2) charging stations within the larger cities, and far too few in the rural and suburban areas.

True, if by "almost enough" you mean for the current level of EV penetration. Which is pretty low in upstate NY. And we need lots more DCFC between those cities.
 
GetOffYourGas said:
danrjones said:
Even in CA there are very underserved areas with little to no infrastructure, so it really depends on where you are.

Places like Mojave are going to have lots of chargers compared to how tiny the town is, because its a important nexus point. But other areas along certain routes are not even covered yet. 395 is finally "Covered" by EA, but I still wouldn't trust single point of failure routes. IF even one EA station is down along 395, you are screwed. That will change as more come online, such as Chargepoint and EVConnect as part CA program, plus a few should come online EVENTUALLY as part of the Caltrans program.

It's true. Most people think of LA or the Bay Area when they think of California. There are also tiny towns way out in the middle of nowhere. Towns like Ridgecrest ;)

But that's true of every state. Contrary to popular opinion, New York is not one giant sprawling metropolis. Most of the population of the state actually does not live in NYC. Upstate, there are a few major cities but it is mostly small towns and farm land. Up here, charging stations are few and far between.

Yes but there is always someplace even smaller. Folks here in Ridgecrest make fun of folks in Trona.

I'd actually like to see a DC charger here though. Help make death valley more accessible.
 
dmacarthur said:
cwerdna said:
alozzy said:
Surprised that WA and OR aren't higher up on this list.
I took at look at why VT might be so high on the list. Its population is only about 623K. DC has 692K and is #2 on the list. Both of these are about 1/3 of my county in California.

WA has 7.615 million and OR has 4.218 million.

If you consider that in Vermont more than half of my local public chargers are Tesla (one bank of 8 in a town with 3 other chargers, one of which is DCFC), and consider Tesla chargers as maybe 1/2 a charger because they are not useful to half the EVs, then Vermont is going to drop to about one charger per 80 people or so, makes more sense from my perspective as one who has been caught on the freeway in Vermont more than once looking for electricity.... but yes to the central point cwerdna Vermont is a tiny state! and another number: our local school district has 138 students, yours probably has more students than Vermont has people!

ummm...so this survey considers SC's as "public" chargers? Well, that is an interesting way to gather data...
 
cwerdna said:
https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/articles/fotw-1169-january-18-2021-vermont-had-highest-number-public-electric-vehicle
The number of public electric vehicle (EV) chargers across the country has been growing. As of November 2020, Vermont had the highest number of public chargers per capita with 114 EV chargers per 100,000 people, followed by the District of Columbia (81) and California (72). Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia had more than 20 chargers per 100,000 people.
Story also has a graph. The bottom three on this metric are Alabama, Louisiana and Alaska.

Discuss. :)

Also, post updates to this metric or similar ones here.

At a glance, I have to say this study provides very little useful information to me. More interested in the mix of stations and plugs per EV. At best; this will be quickly outdated as WA is experiencing 3 different public charging buildouts. Since WA has nearly double OR's population, seeing us tied with them is a surprise but have to chalk that up to expansion in Central/Eastern part of WA as making up that gap.
 
danrjones said:
GetOffYourGas said:
danrjones said:
Even in CA there are very underserved areas with little to no infrastructure, so it really depends on where you are.

Places like Mojave are going to have lots of chargers compared to how tiny the town is, because its a important nexus point. But other areas along certain routes are not even covered yet. 395 is finally "Covered" by EA, but I still wouldn't trust single point of failure routes. IF even one EA station is down along 395, you are screwed. That will change as more come online, such as Chargepoint and EVConnect as part CA program, plus a few should come online EVENTUALLY as part of the Caltrans program.

It's true. Most people think of LA or the Bay Area when they think of California. There are also tiny towns way out in the middle of nowhere. Towns like Ridgecrest ;)

But that's true of every state. Contrary to popular opinion, New York is not one giant sprawling metropolis. Most of the population of the state actually does not live in NYC. Upstate, there are a few major cities but it is mostly small towns and farm land. Up here, charging stations are few and far between.

Yes but there is always someplace even smaller. Folks here in Ridgecrest make fun of folks in Trona.

I'd actually like to see a DC charger here though. Help make death valley more accessible.

But Trona has those cool Pinnacles!

I'd love to see a DC charger in Ridgecrest. And I'd also love to see Avis at LAX offer EVs. I would absolutely subject my coworkers to EV quirkiness every time we traveled out there.
 
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