Here’s how many EV chargers the US has – and how many it needs
There are currently more than 160,000 EV chargers in the US. Here’s how many the auto industry data analysts at S&P Global Mobility think the US will need to install by 2030.
How many EV chargers the US has
S&P Global Mobility estimates that there are presently around 16,822 Tesla Superchargers and Tesla destination chargers in the US, along with 126,500 Level 2 and 20,431 Level 3 charging ports.
The number of charging ports increased more in 2022 than in the preceding three years combined, with about 54,000 Level 2 and 10,000 Level 3 chargers added during 2022.
S&P Global Mobility says registration data shows that there are 1.9 million EVs on US roads – 0.7% of the 281 million vehicles in operation – as of October 31, 2022.
New light-vehicle registration share for EVs reached 5.2% over the first 10 months of 2022, and rapid growth is going to happen, thanks to consumer demand, US government policy that incentivizes EV purchases like the Inflation Reduction Act, and increasing interest and investment from the financial sector.
How many EV chargers the US needs
EV market share for new vehicles is likely to reach 40% by 2030, at which point the total number of EVs in operation could reach 28.3 million, according to S&P Global Mobility forecasts.
The group expects that there will need to be about 700,000 Level 2 and 70,000 Level 3 chargers deployed, including both public and restricted-use facilities.
So in order to match the charging needs of all those EVs, the US will need to quadruple the number of EV chargers between 2022 and 2025, and grow more than eight-fold by 2030, even taking home charging into account, according to the analysts.
By 2027, the analysts expect that there will be a need for about 1.2 million Level 2 chargers and 109,000 Level 3 chargers deployed nationally.
And looking to 2030, with the assumption that there will be 28.3 million EVs on US roads, a total of around 2.13 million Level 2 and 172,000 Level 3 public chargers will be required, in addition to home EV chargers.
Where EV chargers are going
Demand and installation across the 50 states won’t be evenly distributed. Just 35 states have signed on for federal assistance under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, of which $7.5 billion will be spent on EV charging infrastructure. President Joe Biden has pledged that the federal government will pay for the installation of 500,000 chargers.
The four states with the highest number of EVs in operation and highest new-vehicle registrations traditionally are California, Florida, Texas, and New York.
Because these states all take a different approach to emissions reduction – that is, California and New York prioritize it and Florida and Texas don’t – S&P Global Mobility attributes this growth to the size of their markets.
California is in the lead by far, with nearly 37% of total EVs in operation and nearly 36% of total US light-vehicle EV registrations from Jan-Sept 2022.
Florida sits in a distant second with 7.4% of light-vehicle EV registrations and 6.9% of EVs in operation. Texas comes in at 5.8% of EVs in operation and 6.4% of EV light-vehicle registrations.
As an example of what is and what’s needed at the state level, Texas currently has about 5,600 Level 2 non-Tesla and 900 Level 3 chargers, but S&P Global Mobility forecasts that the Lone Star State will need around 87,500 Level 2 and 7,800 level 3 chargers to support the expected 1.1 million EVs in operation by 2027.
Eighty-five percent of Level 3 chargers and 89% of Level 2 chargers are currently located in the 384 US Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) as defined by the US Census Bureau. For Tesla owners, 82% of Tesla Superchargers and 83% of its destination chargers are in MSAs.
S&P Global Mobility analyst Ian McIlravey said:
The focus on urban areas follows where EVs are today, but distribution will need to be much wider as vehicles in operation grow, and consumers need to charge along their routes.
And Graham Evans, S&P Global Mobility research and analysis director, said:
For mass-market acceptance of BEVs to take hold, the recharging infrastructure must do more than keep pace with EV sales.
It must surprise and delight vehicle owners who will be new to electrification, so that the process seems seamless and perhaps even more convenient than their experience with gasoline refueling, with minimal compromise on the vehicle ownership experience.
Electrek’s Take
What the US really needs is an increase in the density of DC fast chargers, and the strategic location of said DC fast chargers in convenient, well-lit places.
It’s not useful to have hundreds of Level 2 chargers along an interstate. People who are road tripping need convenient fast chargers right off the road.
This is why Tesla Superchargers are great. Anyone who has used them on the New Jersey Turnpike, for example, knows what I’m talking about. You pull straight off, they’re in a conspicuous, well-lit area, and there’s food and restrooms right next to them. They’re safe and convenient. Within 20 minutes you’re back on the road.
Compare that to my two-hour road trip last week from Boston to Vermont in my VW ID.4. Logan Airport has 6.5 kW EV charging ports in the parking garage. They’re free, and that’s nice, but you’re not allowed to leave your car plugged in while you’re traveling.
What in the hell are you going to do with a 6.5 kW charging port at the airport? Sleep in your car after you return?
Airports really ought to provide each EV parking spot with a Level 1 outlet that you can just plug your car into while you travel. That would be a dream.
So I drove to Somerville, just a couple miles from Logan, to a set of three 150 kW Electrify America charging ports. I had to put my credit card into the kiosk to get into the parking garage where they were located. I had to search for them. They were isolated, near no bathrooms, and it was 10 p.m. It was far from an ideal experience. Rollout of new EV charging ports needs to correct this situation.
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EV sales kept up their momentum in December 2024, with incentives playing a big role, according to the latest Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book report.
December’s strong EV sales saw an average transaction price (ATP) of $55,544, which helped push the industry-wide ATP higher, according to Kelley Blue Book. The December ATP for an EV was higher year-over-year by 0.8%, slightly below the industry average, and higher month-over-month by 1.1%. Tesla ATPs were higher year-over-year by 10.5%.
Incentives for EVs remained elevated in December, although they were slightly lower month-over-month at 14.3% of ATP, down from 14.7% in November.
EV incentives were higher by an impressive 41% year-over-year and have been above 12% of ATP for six consecutive months. Strong sales incentives, which averaged more than $6,700 per sale in 2024, were one reason EV sales surpassed 1.3 million units last year, according to Cox Automotive, a new record for volume and share.
(My colleague Jameson Dow reported yesterday, “In 2024, the world sold 3.5 million more EVs than it did in the previous year … This increase is larger than the 3.2 million increase in EV sales from the previous year – meaning that EV sales aren’t just up, but that the rate of growth is itself increasing.”)
Kelley Blue Book estimated that in December, approximately 84,000 vehicles – or 5.6% of total sales – transacted at prices higher than $80,000 – the highest volume ever. KBB lumps gas cars and EVs together into this luxury vehicle category, so this is where Tesla Cybertruck is slotted.
However, Tesla bundles sales figures of Cybertruck with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi(!) into a category it calls “other models,” so we don’t know for sure exactly how many Cybertrucks Tesla sold in Q4, much less in December. However, Electrek‘s Fred Lambert estimates between 9,000 and 12,000 Cybertrucks were sold in Q4, and that’s not a stellar sales figure.
What will January bring when it comes to EV ATPs? What about tax credits? Check back in a month and I’ll fill you in.
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Tesla is now claiming that Cybertruck was the ‘best-selling electric pickup in US’ last year despite not even reporting the number of deliveries.
There’s a lot of context needed here.
As we often highlighted, Tesla is sadly one of, if not the most, opaque automakers regarding sales reports.
Tesla doesn’t break down sales per model or even region.
For comparison, here’s Ford’s Q4 2024 sales report compared to Tesla’s:
You could argue that Tesla has fewer models than Ford, and that’s true, but Tesla’s report literally has two lines despite having six different models.
There’s no reason not to offer a complete breakdown like all other automakers other than trying to make it hard to verify the health of each vehicle program.
This has been the case with the Cybertruck. Tesla is bundling its Cybertruck deliveries with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi deliveries.
Despite this lack of disclosure, Tesla has been able to claim that the Cybertruck has become “the best-selling electric pickup truck” in the US in 2024:
It very well might be true. Ford disclosed 33,510 F-150 Lightning truck deliveries in the US in 2024 while most estimates are putting Cybertruck deliveries at around 40,000 units.
Those are global deliveries, but Tesla only delivered the Cybertruck in the US, Canada, and Mexico in 2024, and most of the deliveries are believed to be in the US.
However, there’s essential context needed here, as we highlighted in our recent ‘Tesla Cybertruck sales are disastrous‘ article.
First off, Tesla had a backlog of over 1 million reservations for the Cybertruck that it has been building since 2019. This led many to believe Tesla already had years of demand baked in for the truck and that production would be the constraint.
However, based on estimates, again, because Tesla refuses to disclose the data, Cybertruck deliveries were either flat or down in Q4 versus Q3 despite Tesla introducing cheaper versions of the vehicle and ramping up production.
Again, that’s after just about 40,000 deliveries.
Furthermore, with almost 11,000 deliveries in Q4 in the US, Ford more likely than not outsold Cybertruck with the F-150 Lightning in Q4.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla is in damage control here. There’s no doubt that it is having issues selling the Cybertruck.
Inventory is full of Cybertrucks and Tesla is now discounting them and offering free lifetime Supercharging.
Tesla is great at ramping up production, and it’s clear the Cybertruck is not production-constrained anymore. It is demand-constrained despite having over 1 million reservations.
Again, those reservations were made before Tesla unveiled the production version, which happened to have less range and cost significantly more.
The upcoming cheaper single motor version should help with demand, but I have serious doubts Tesla can ramp this program up to more than 100,000 units in the US.
As a reminder, Tesla installed a production capacity of 250,000 units annually and Musk said he could see Tesla selling 500,000 Cybertrucks per year.
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