California Now Has Nearly 50 Percent More EV Plugs Than Gas Pumps
California says that the number of public EV chargers in the state has officially exceeded the number of gas pumps in the state.
A release from California Gov. Gavin Newsome's office says the state now has 178,549 public and shared private EV chargers compared with 120,000 gas pumps.
The vast majority of those chargers are Level 2 chargers, though there are roughly 17,000 fast-chargers spread throughout the Golden State.
It's no secret that California is leading the charge toward electrifying American roads. It's the state that birthed Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid Motors, after all. Now, according to a new memo released by the governor's office, California's EV chargers outnumber the state's gas pumps by a considerable margin.
Last week, California's governor, Gavin Newsom, announced that California has now installed 178,549 public and shared private EV chargers throughout the state. The vast majority of public chargers in the state are Level 2 chargers, which account for 162,000 plugs. The remaining 16,500 chargers are DC fast-chargers.
In comparison, the California Energy Commission (CEC) estimates there are around 120,000 gas pumps in the state, meaning public EV chargers outnumber gas nozzles by nearly 50 percent. The numbers become even more staggering when you bring home charging into the equation. The CEC estimates there are roughly 700,000 Level 2 chargers installed at single-family homes throughout California.
The CEC also showed how the number of chargers has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, with plans to improve EV infrastructure even more in the coming years. In December 2024, the CEC approved a $1.4 billion investment plan to expand both EV charging infrastructure and access to hydrogen fuel—though that could face challenges in light of the Trump administration's attack on what the president calls the "EV mandate."
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