Alternative energy sources have been at the forefront of strategies to reduce carbon emissions. This is especially true in transportation, the sector responsible for the most greenhouse gas emissions in the US. However, the US has more than 280,000,000 registered vehicles, begging the question what are we doing about the planet killing use of existing fuels for the vast majority of vehicles that are on and will stay on the roads? Electric vehicle (EV) charging stations have been growing faster than any other fueling categories and now account for about 84% of all alternative fueling stations.

EV charging stations – like wealth and taxes – are not evenly distributed in the US. Of the more than 60,000 EV charging stations, California is home to ~16,000 or about 21%. New York, Florida, Texas, and Massachusetts close out the top five states with the greatest number of EV stations, with at most 2500 stations each. Normalizing the data per 1000 road lane miles, Washington, DC had the highest number of stations, at 102 per 1000 lane miles, followed by Hawaii then California. Arkansas was the leader in terms of its rate of charging station growth in 2022 to 2023, followed by North Dakota, Michigan, Louisiana, and New Jersey. All five states increased the number of their electric vehicle charging stations by more than 25%.