10,000 Workplace EV Chargers Now In USA — Boom In 2021
Well, we just have data through the first quarter of 2021 so far, but the first quarter did see a notable boom in workplace EV chargers and charging stations across the USA, with around 1,000 chargers in the quarter. That brought the US total to nearly 10,000.
If the results were replicated in the remainder of 2021, that would mean nearly 13,000 workplace EV chargers rather than the ~9,000 we started the year with. Even if trends dropped to ~500 additional chargers each quarter, that would bring us to ~11,500 by the end of the year.
Clarifying what we are talking about here, the US Department of Energy (DOE) writes, “Workplace charging stations are private charging stations that are designated for employees only.”
The DOE also discusses the trends from the end of 2019 to the beginning of 2021. “From the last quarter of 2019 to the first quarter of 2021, the number of workplace chargers increased by 28% to a total of 9,894 chargers. The vast majority of workplace chargers, nearly 95%, were Level 2 as of the first quarter of 2021. In that same quarter, Level 1 chargers accounted for about 4% and DC fast chargers accounted for less than 1%.”
Data come from a National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) report, Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Trends from the Alternative Fueling Station Locator: First Quarter 2021.
The report also shares data on growth of private EV charging ports compared to public EV charging ports, trends in EV fast charging power capacity, growth of fast chargers by connector type, and much more. Below are charts on those three matters and a few others, but dive into the full report for a closer look.
One interesting thing to note in this first chart (Figure 4) is the great growth in private EV charging ports in Q1 2021 (23.8%), by far its biggest in the time period displayed here.
On the flip side, public EV fast charger growth nearly stopped in Q1 2021. I’m not certain of the reason for that, but my hunch would be that everyone in that sector saw the potential for government subsidies from the Biden administration — which is keen to fund a lot of EV charging infrastructure and accelerate the EV revolution — and decided to delay projects until they could win some government funding for them.
The takeaway from this one is obvious: the big growth in EV fast charging infrastructure in the first quarter came from fast chargers with a power capacity of 51–299 kW, breaking the long-term trend up until then of fast chargers with a power capacity of <51 kW dominating the DC fast charging market.
I have to admit that the biggest surprise for me in Figure 7 was not Tesla’s continued leadership and growth (well known) or how solidly CCS is growing, but was the fact that CHAdeMO fast chargers continue to grow! Though, despite the standard being all but dead and I think completely dead when it comes to new EV models, many new stations continue to include CHAdeMO ports. For how much longer? …
Tesla has some fairly big bars here, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that ChargePoint dominates the existing Level 2 EV charger landscape. (Note that this is about all installed chargers, not new chargers/charging station growth.)
When it comes to EV fast chargers, though, Tesla is indeed king, with 56.7% of installed EV fast charging ports. Electrify America has taken the silver-medal position, with 14.4% of ports, and then ChargePoint barely holds the bronze-medal position, with 8%, over EVgo (7.8%).
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