D.C., California, New Jersey, and Florida are the Top States for Fast Charger Utilization

Utilization rates* for fast-charging stations varied significantly across the U.S. in Q1 2025, with the District of Columbia (38.2%), California (23.6%), New Jersey (21.6%), and Florida (20.2%) leading the nation. These are some of the findings from the Paren Q1 2025 State of the Industry Report: U.S. EV Fast Charging — Q1 2025.

These elevated rates generally reflect a combination of a large number of EVs on the road in a state (or market in the case of the District of Columbia), high rideshare usage, large apartment rental population, and concentrated urban populations. Conversely, states like South Dakota (1.1%), Montana (1.9%), and North Dakota (2.6%) have the lowest utilization—a combination of very low EV penetration, being rural markets, and very low use of rideshare services.

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The District of Columbia, of course not technically a state but a district and territory, is seeing very high utilization due to several factors. These include D.C. being a very urban region, a popular rideshare market, a large policy-oriented population likely to drive EVs, a relatively small number of DCFC stations at eight, with 56 ports, and being surrounded by the relatively high EV-adopting states of Maryland and Virginia—resulting in many commuters and travelers regularly driving into the District.

California, the EV capital of the US, is no surprise, but New Jersey’s high utilization is likely driven by fewer fast chargers in the state than is needed, combined with a large percentage of rideshare usage between Newark airport and New York City and commuters without access to charging where they live. Florida, which is home to the second most BEVs on the road (after California), and is a state with many major destination cities resulting in lots of charging stops for drivers criss-crossing the state. It is also somewhat ironic that Florida is seeing such high utilization as a red state and one with an anti-EV governor.

Six of the eight states with less than a 5% utilization rate are “plains states” that also have some of the lowest BEV sales shares in the US, combined with some of the longest average annual vehicle miles traveled (VMT), very high pickup ownership rates, and are very rural–making EVs less attractive. As it is, these states have more charging infrastructure than is needed for the current level of demand, however, they suffer from a “chicken and egg” scenario of not having enough charging stations in rural highway locations that are needed to attract both EV drivers wanting to take road trips, and local residents who take frequent trips to the nearest “big city.” This was exactly the problem that the NEVI program was designed to solve, which now with its pause and likely lengthy delays only further hurts the attractiveness of these rural markets.

Understanding the differences in market composition and dynamics help spotlight where charging demand is most likely to grow the fastest in the future. A recent key driver of rising utilization, for example, has been the growth in adoption of EVs by rideshare drivers—many of whom may charge multiple times per day, several days per week.

View or download our Q1 2025 State of the Industry report for more charts and information on fast charging utilization along with infrastructure growth, reliability, and pricing.

*Utilization rate calculated as session minutes per station as a percentage of total hours of operation per day.

By Loren McDonald, Chief Analyst