What number of plug-in automobiles do you suppose are on the street the place you reside? In case you stay in Mississippi or North Dakota, you is likely to be fortunate to catch a glimpse of 1 in your each day commute. Power.gov’s most up-to-date Truth of the Week (FOTW) highlighted plug-in car (together with PHEVs and full EVs) registration numbers, and the variety of states the place they represented lower than half a % would possibly shock you.
Ten states had a plug-in car registration share of lower than 0.5% as of December 2023. The 5 lowest have been:
Louisiana: 0.3% plug-in registration share
West Virginia: 0.28%
Wyoming: 0.28%
North Dakota: 0.20%
Mississippi: 0.19%
In case you solely checked out these states, it’d be straightforward to imagine the worst about plug-in car gross sales and adoption, however a number of others put up a lot higher registration numbers. California had 4.3%, adopted by the District of Columbia with 3.52%. Hawaii, Washington, and Oregon accomplished the highest 5.
Moreover, Argonne Nationwide Laboratory, which supplied the information for the FOTW, discovered that the 2023 calendar yr noticed a report variety of plug-in car gross sales. Greater than 1.4 million have been bought final yr, a leap of over 50% from 2022. The overwhelming majority of them – 80% – have been EVs. Total market share elevated to 9.3% in 2023, up from 6.8 % the yr earlier than.
This knowledge is attention-grabbing for quite a lot of causes, together with that it illustrates what we’ve been listening to about EVs for some time now. The states with the smallest share of plug-in registrations all fall on the pink finish of the political spectrum, whereas the 5 with essentially the most are on the alternative aspect of the aisle.
The numbers additionally present that geography and inhabitants density matter. States like Wyoming and North Dakota are extraordinarily sparsely populated and wish extra sturdy charging and help infrastructure that locations like California and D.C. have.
