The US added 4,200 new DC fast charging ports, and that’s just Q2

Despite growing uncertainty around federal EV charging policy, fast-charging infrastructure in the US isn’t slowing down — it’s doing the opposite.

A new industry report from EV charging data firm Paren shows that 2025 is shaping up to be a record-breaking year for DC fast charger deployment. The “State of the Industry Report: US EV Fast Charging – Q2 2025” forecasts a 19% year-over-year jump in port installations – 16,700 new fast charging ports – and that’s on top of a record 2024.

Q2 saw 4,242 new DC fast charging ports come online, bringing the total to 59,694 – a 23% increase. That’s 784 new DC fast charging stations. It’s important to note that Trump may have yanked the NEVI funding (and then was made to give some of it back by the courts), but many of those projects were already underway. Paren expects that momentum to continue through the rest of 2025. Plus, NEVI chargers make up just a single-digit percentage of the new DC fast chargers coming online in 2025.

“2025 is going to be a record year for deployment of DC fast charging ports – and 2024 was already the highest year on record,” said Loren McDonald, chief analyst at Paren. “Charging 2.0 players are deploying new – and larger – stations at a breakneck pace.”

Paren’s data shows that the industry is consolidating around bigger fast-charging hubs with 8, 10, 12, or more ports, and high-powered hardware that supports faster charging and higher throughput. Reliability is improving too: the firm’s U.S. Reliability Index posted a 5.3% year-over-year gain as aging chargers get replaced and more robust stations come online.

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National average utilization dipped slightly in Q2 to 16.1%, down from 16.6% in Q1. While part of that drop is due to warmer weather, Paren flagged some surprising slowdowns in markets where charger use has historically been strong – a possible early sign that charger growth may be starting to outpace EV adoption in some areas.

On the pricing front, fast charging got slightly cheaper overall. The national average price per kilowatt-hour fell to $0.48, down from $0.50 in Q1. That’s because more stations are switching from flat-rate pricing to time-of-use (TOU) models – 366 stations made that switch last quarter alone, and one-third of those were in California.

But that doesn’t mean prices are dropping everywhere. Nearly a third of stations with fixed or TOU pricing tweaked their rates in Q2, either up or down. In California, average prices actually went up by three cents among the stations that made changes.

Paren concludes that all signs point to the EV charging industry entering a new phase – what it calls “Charging 2.0” – where scale, speed, and customer experience are driving the next wave of deployment. And while federal incentives may be dialing back, private investment is stepping up.

“Charge point operators who deliver a strong customer experience – prioritizing speed, reliability, seamless payment and pricing transparency, premium amenities, and safe, well-lit locations – will earn long-term loyalty from EV drivers,” said Heiko Schmidt, VP, network strategy & consumer offering at Mercedes-Benz HPC North America.

Read more: Wawa is getting ultra-fast EV chargers from IONNA

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