EV Sales, Charger Growth Mismatched
Study shows infrastructure development isn’t keeping pace with gradual EV adoption.
Range anxiety, or driver worry about being able to keep an EV charged while on the road, is consistently cited as one of the major reasons many consumers pass over pure EVs.
Pixabay/Joenomias
U.S. electric-vehicle sales are gradually growing, but charging infrastructure growth isn’t keeping pace, according to a new report.
Second-quarter new light-duty EV sales grew 1% over the first quarter and year-over-year, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation.
Registered EVs totaled more than 386,000, up 9% year-over-year and representing an 8% jump in EVs in operation quarter-over-quarter.
Meanwhile, public EV chargers increased by 6% quarter-over-quarter, the alliance reported, for 38 new EVs for every new public charging point, the alliance reported. Looking at the whole EV picture, 5 million of them are on the road, but there are just 177,330 public chargers, or 29 EVs per port.
Range anxiety, or driver worry about being able to keep an EV charged while on the road, is consistently cited as one of the major reasons many consumers pass over pure EVs in favor of hybrids or gas-powered models.
The Biden administration has worked to increase public charging infrastructure, but development hasn’t kept pace with EV adoption, however gradual it may be and behind automakers’ earlier optimistic expectations.
When it comes to EV adoption, some states are further along than others, with California leading the way at 27% of vehicle registrations, followed by Colorado and Washington, D.C., both at 19%, and Oregon, at 16%. EVs also exceed 10% of registrations in seven other states.
Hybrids have taken off in sales as EV growth slowed. The alliance’s report shows they increased 3% year-over-year as gas- and diesel-powered market share fell 4%.
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