United States Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Expansion Reaches New High

According to Bloomberg, American consumers can no longer enjoy federal tax credit benefits for purchasing electric vehicles, but the convenience of electric vehicle charging has improved in recent months.

Image Source: Tesla

According to data from the U.S. Department of Energy, approximately 780 new public fast charging stations were added in the third quarter of this year, marking the highest increase in the construction of such infrastructure on record. In the first nine months of this year, the overall growth of charging infrastructure in the U.S. was 19%.

Analyst Chris Pierce from investment bank Needham & Co., who is responsible for researching the charging network sector, stated: "Considering the current policies and investment trends, the growth rate of the charging network in the United States is quite astonishing."

Chris Pierce pointed out that many of the new charging station construction permits were likely approved before President Trump took office. However, executives in the charging industry believe that even in the absence of federal incentives and with expected slowdowns in electric vehicle sales, the current supply of charging services in the U.S. market cannot meet the demand.

Chris Pierce said, "For a long time, the U.S. charging market has been in a state of severe imbalance with an extreme shortage of charging stations. Today, the shortage of charging stations has somewhat eased, but it is still far from market saturation."

EVgo, one of the largest charging network operators in the United States, stated that early electric vehicle users tend to charge at home, but new users rely more on public charging facilities. Electric vehicles are particularly popular among ride-hailing drivers, and the second-hand electric vehicle market is also booming.

EVgo CEO Badar Khan stated in the earnings call in August this year, "In the future, the number of electric vehicles served by each fast charging station is likely to continue to increase."

Restaurants and retail stores are also helping to improve the charging network layout, as these businesses increasingly view charging stations as a means to attract customers. For example, from July to September this year, the chain restaurant Cracker Barrel added six charging stations in the southern United States; in the past three months, Target Corp. added 14 charging stations at its stores, Wawa Inc. added 12 charging stations, and both IKEA and Dunkin' Donuts added four charging stations each.

Pilot Travel Centers LLC owns about 800 truck stops and travel centers in the United States and has been particularly active in building charging stations. Currently, more than a quarter of the company's sites are equipped with charging stations, with 27 new charging stations added in the most recent quarter alone.

Pilot is deploying charging stations in areas that previously lacked charging facilities, specifically in the Dakotas, the American South, and Wyoming. Brandon Trama, the head of the company's electrification vehicle business, stated in an email, "We are committed to ensuring that all customers feel their needs are being valued."

However, the growth trend of charging station construction in the United States contrasts with the expectation that electric vehicle sales will stagnate in the coming years after losing U.S. federal subsidies. Just last week, Ford CEO Jim Farley speculated that in the fourth quarter of this year, the share of electric vehicles in U.S. car sales might drop from the current approximately 10% to around 5%.

However, executives in the charging industry remain optimistic about this. They point out that the construction of charging infrastructure in the United States is still "catching up" with the pace of electric vehicle adoption, and the sales of new electric vehicles in the U.S. may prove to be more resilient than expected—especially as vehicle prices decline and more affordable models are introduced, this resilience may become even more pronounced. In fact, among developed countries, the United States is one of the countries with the most serious imbalance between the number of electric vehicle registrations and public charging stations.

Rick Wilmer, CEO of ChargePoint Holdings Inc., stated to investors in September: “A series of changes is currently occurring in the U.S. market that will increase the range of electric vehicle options and reduce vehicle prices. We believe this will drive overall demand for electric vehicles, in turn boosting the demand for charging services in the future.”

Despite the possibility that federal funding may no longer flow to electric vehicle buyers in the United States, funding support for charging stations has resumed. In January this year, President Trump issued an executive order freezing a $5 billion plan aimed at building charging stations in rural and disadvantaged communities in the United States. However, in June this year, the U.S. federal court required the Trump administration to restore funding to the 14 states that filed lawsuits against the freeze order.

On September 17, Illinois, one of the litigating states, allocated $18 million to build 25 new charging stations along the interstate highways in the state.

Additionally, it is worth mentioning that in June of this year, California successfully prevented the federal government from withholding billions of dollars in special allocations for electric vehicle charging infrastructure approved by a bipartisan majority of Congress.

According to the latest data from the California Energy Commission (CEC), the state currently has 201,180 public and shared electric vehicle charging stations, which is 68% more than gas pumps. In California, public charging stations can be found in grocery store parking lots, garages, office buildings, sports venues, and gas stations; meanwhile, shared charging stations are gradually becoming more common in apartment buildings and office towers. In addition to public and shared charging stations, there are approximately 800,000 home charging stations installed in single-family homes across California.