What you need to know
- While the number of electric vehicle charging stations is increasing, it lags far behind the number required to support widespread EV adoption and government mandates.
- Satisfying the Department of Energy’s requirements for charging sites would require over 160,000 new sites, at an estimated cost of over $80 billion.
- Most of these new charging sites would be located in rural areas and would not be heavily used.
- Urban areas present another challenge, as most residents lack private parking spaces that can be used for overnight charging.
One of the major impediments to getting more electric vehicles (EVs) on the road is the need for wide-scale charging infrastructure. Charging stations are needed so that people can use EVs for longer periods of driving and to allow urban residents (who may lack garages and parking spaces where they can install a charging port) to charge their EVs for everyday use. While the number of charging stations is steadily increasing, it lags far behind the number required to support widespread EV adoption and government mandates. In this brief, our analysts calculate the number of charging stations needed and where they must be located.
How much charging infrastructure exists at present?
The U.S. Department of Energy’s most recent report on EV infrastructure determined that for an EV driver to be no more than three miles from a fast-charging station in any city or town, there would need to be a charger density of 56 stations per 1,000 square miles. This number is significantly lower than the density of gas stations, which have an average density of about 960 stations per 1,000 square miles. The chart below shows the density of charging stations by state, with the EPA recommendation as a dashed line.
The data shows that only two states, Massachusetts and Connecticut, have charging station densities above the EPA recommendation. Many large, low-population Western states, such as Wyoming or Montana, have relatively few charging stations. Moreover, even some high-population states, such as Texas and Illinois, are well below the EPA requirement.
While this data does not assess population density, geographic conditions (e.g. seasonal temperatures where batteries perform better or worse), the exact specifics of these charging stations themselves (accessibility, parking allotment, etc.), or whether charging stations are located in the right places to satisfy the EPA’s 3-mile requirement, they provide a first look at the number of new stations needed to satisfy the U.S. Department of Energy’s guidelines.
How many new charging stations are needed?
Based on analysis by Everything Policy’s research team, the chart below shows the number of new charging stations needed in each state to satisfy the EPA’s 3-mile guidelines. Overall, this goal requires the addition of over 160,000 charging stations.
Similar to the previous chart, the number of new stations is especially high in large, low-populated western states such as Montana. However, even California, which has one of the highest station densities, needs over 5000 new stations. And Texas, which is both large in terms of square miles and has a high population, needs over 10,000 new stations to meet EPA requirements. At the other end, many Northeastern states, such as Rhode Island or New Jersey, need relatively few new stations to join Massachusetts and Connecticut in having a dense network of EV charging stations.
The Take-Away
Few analyses of EVs as the primary mode of personal transportation have considered the infrastructure needed to make this transition work. Our analysis shows that over 160,000 new charging stations are needed to meet the EPA’s 3-mile guideline. Based on Department of Energy estimates, a new 10-port charging station may cost nearly $400,000, including hardware, land costs, and construction. If so, the cost of a national network is nearly 80 billion dollars – much more than the 5 billion dollars currently allocated by the federal government for new charging stations. Moreover, building this network may require the use of eminent domain (see our Brief on Eminent Domain in Further Reading) to construct the number of EV charging stations required in the optimal locations.
Further reading
Boushey, Heather. 2023. Full Charge: The Economics of Building a National EV Charging Network. White House Briefing Room. https://tinyurl.com/23x8jcxf.
Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. Public Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Playbook. https://driveelectric.gov/ev-infrastructure-playbook.
Policy vs. Politics Policy Brief: Eminent Domain. https://tinyurl.com/29j33wr6
Sources
How much charging infrastructure exists at present?
Richter, F. 2016. Density of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in the United States. Statista. https://tinyurl.com/26s7kvkv, accessed 7/15/2024.
U.S. Department of Energy. 2024. Alternate Fuels Data Center. Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Bureau. https://afdc.energy.gov/stations/states, accessed 7/15/2024.
Wood, E., C. Rames, M. Muratori, S. Raghavan, and M. Melaina. 2017. National Plug-In Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Analysis. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, US Department of Energy Report. https://tinyurl.com/mtapd8x2, accessed 7/17/2024.
How many new charging stations are needed?
U.S. Census Bureau. 2010. State Area Measurements and Internal Points Coordinates. https://tinyurl.com/33jwkhzp, accessed 7/15/2024.
U.S. Department of Energy. 2024. Alternate Fuels Data Center. Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Bureau. https://afdc.energy.gov/stations/states, accessed 7/15/2024.
U.S. Department of Energy 2024. Procurement and Installation for Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure, https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/electricity-infrastructure-development, accessed 8/5/24.
The Take-Away
Tolbert, J. 2021. Beyond Cities: Breaking Through Barriers to Rural Electric Vehicle Adoption. Environmental and Energy Studies Institute. https://tinyurl.com/r3tdy8h, accessed 7/15/2024.
Voelcker, J. 2023. How Much Does It Cost to Charge an Electric Vehicle? Car and Driver Magazine. https://tinyurl.com/acxmbdy9, accessed 7/15/2024.
Contributors
Allison Cooper (Intern) is a Political Science and Philosophy (Law and Policy) student at Washington University in St. Louis. She will graduate in May 2027 and plans to attend law school post-graduation.
Olivia DiPietro (Intern) is a rising junior at Fordham University pursuing a double major in French and journalism.
Dr. Robert Holahan (Content Lead) is Associate Professor of Political Science and Faculty-in-Residence of the Dickinson Research Team (DiRT) at Binghamton University (SUNY). He holds a PhD in Political Science in 2011 from Indiana University-Bloomington, where his advisor was Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom.
Dr. William Bianco (Research Director) received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Rochester. He is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Indiana Political Analytics Workshop at Indiana University. His current research is on representation, political identities, and the politics of scientific research.
