Commercial Charging · Market comparison
EV charging access in the 10 biggest EV markets
Ten metro areas scored on public chargers per new EV, fast-charging coverage, EV adoption and utility programs, with the weights, data and limits shown.
Drive Economics has no affiliation with, sponsorship from, or endorsement by any charging network, automaker, utility, city or program named here.
The short answer
- The San Francisco Bay Area ranks first among the 10 markets with the most new EV registrations, scoring 45.4 of 50. It leads on fast-charging coverage, EV adoption and utility programs. San Diego (36.6) and Denver (35.8) follow.
- Chargers per EV carries double weight, as the measure that most directly shows whether public charging keeps up with demand. On that measure Denver (268 public ports per 1,000 new EVs) and San Diego (262) lead, and Miami (112) trails.
- Dallas–Fort Worth ranks last (9.3), low on every measure, including utility programs: its wires utility, Oncor, lists one EV-related incentive type in the federal database.
- Any ranking depends on its weights. With equal weights, the top five stay the same and only the middle reorders. Each measure is shown on its own below, and permitting speed is left out because no consistent data exists across these cities.
Overall ranking
EV charging access score, top 10 EV markets
Each measure scored 1 to 10 across the 10 markets; public ports per new EV counts twice. Maximum 50.
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The four measures
Public ports per new EV
Public Level 2 and DC fast ports per 1,000 new EVs registered in the past 12 months. Shows whether public charging is keeping pace with new EVs.
Fast-charging coverage
Public DC fast ports per 100,000 residents. Shows how available quick charging is for residents, visitors and drivers without home charging.
EV adoption
New EVs registered per 1,000 residents over 12 months. A larger EV base supports charging business and more utility attention.
Utility programs
EV-related incentive types listed by the main local utilities in the federal Alternative Fuels Data Center: EV rates, charger and make-ready rebates, managed charging and vehicle offers.
Public ports per new EV
Public charging ports per 1,000 new EVs registered
Level 2 and DC fast ports, divided by new retail EV registrations over 12 months.
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A low figure can mean public charging lags demand, as in Miami, or that most EVs charge at home. A high figure in a market with fewer EVs, such as Denver, may reflect early building ahead of demand.
Busy chargers tell the same story from the other side: Paren reported Q3 2026 fast-charger utilization of 31.8% in Los Angeles, 28.4% in Miami and 27.8% in San Diego, against 15.9% nationally (Paren). Utilization is not scored here because it is not published for all 10 markets.
Fast-charging coverage
Public DC fast ports per 100,000 residents
Includes Tesla Superchargers, which many non-Tesla EVs can use with a NACS port or an adapter.
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EV adoption
New EVs registered per 1,000 residents, 12 months
Retail EV registrations only; fleet and lease registrations may be counted differently.
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Experian also publishes total new retail registrations for six of these markets, which gives EV share of new sales: about 31% in the Bay Area, 19% in Los Angeles, 11% in Miami, 8% in Dallas–Fort Worth, 8% in New York and 8% in Chicago, against 8.2% nationally (Experian). Because it is not published for all 10, sales share is shown here but not scored.
Utility programs
EV-related incentive types listed by the main local utilities
Count of residential and non-residential EV incentive types in AFDC; averaged where two utilities are used.
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PG&E (9): Residential: EV Time-of-Use (TOU) Rate; EV Level 2 Charging Station Purchase Rebate; Pre-Owned EV Rebate. Business: EV Time-of-Use (TOU) Rate; EV Level 2 Charging Station Purchase Rebate; EV Direct Current (DC) Fast Charging Station Purchase Rebate; EV Charger Deployment Pilot Programs; New EV Rebate; Off-Road EV Equipment Rebates. AFDC listing
ComEd (8): Residential: EV Level 2 Charging Station Purchase Rebate; EV Level 2 Charging Station Installation Rebate. Business: EV Level 2 Charging Station Purchase Rebate; EV Direct Current (DC) Fast Charging Station Purchase Rebate; EV Level 2 Charging Station Installation Rebate; EV Direct Current (DC) Fast Charging Station Installation Rebate; Make-Ready or Pre-Wiring Rebate for EV Chargers; New EV Rebate. AFDC listing
Xcel Energy (7): Residential: EV Time-of-Use (TOU) Rate; EV Level 2 Charging Station Purchase Rebate; Make-Ready or Pre-Wiring Rebate for EV Chargers; EV Charger Deployment Pilot Programs; New EV Rebate; Pre-Owned EV Rebate. Business: EV Time-of-Use (TOU) Rate. AFDC listing
Seattle City Light (7): Residential: EV Level 2 Charging Station Purchase Rebate. Business: EV Level 2 Charging Station Purchase Rebate; EV Direct Current (DC) Fast Charging Station Purchase Rebate; EV Level 2 Charging Station Installation Rebate; EV Direct Current (DC) Fast Charging Station Installation Rebate; Make-Ready or Pre-Wiring Rebate for EV Chargers; Fleet Electrification Assessment. AFDC listing
Con Edison (4): Residential: EV Time-of-Use (TOU) Rate; EV Managed Charging Program. Business: Make-Ready or Pre-Wiring Rebate for EV Chargers; EV Charger Deployment Pilot Programs. AFDC listing
PSE&G (7): Residential: EV Time-of-Use (TOU) Rate; EV Level 2 Charging Station Installation Rebate; Make-Ready or Pre-Wiring Rebate for EV Chargers. Business: EV Time-of-Use (TOU) Rate; EV Level 2 Charging Station Installation Rebate; EV Direct Current (DC) Fast Charging Station Installation Rebate; Make-Ready or Pre-Wiring Rebate for EV Chargers. AFDC listing
Georgia Power (4): Residential: EV Time-of-Use (TOU) Rate; EV Level 2 Charging Station Purchase Rebate. Business: EV Level 2 Charging Station Purchase Rebate; Make-Ready or Pre-Wiring Rebate for EV Chargers. AFDC listing
LADWP (4): Residential: EV Level 2 Charging Station Purchase Rebate; Pre-Owned EV Rebate. Business: EV Level 2 Charging Station Purchase Rebate; EV Direct Current (DC) Fast Charging Station Purchase Rebate. AFDC listing
SCE (3): Residential: EV Time-of-Use (TOU) Rate; Make-Ready or Pre-Wiring Rebate for EV Chargers; Pre-Owned EV Rebate. Business: none listed. AFDC listing
FPL (3): Residential: EV Charger Deployment Pilot Programs. Business: EV Charger Deployment Pilot Programs; Fleet Electrification Assessment. AFDC listing
SDG&E (2): Residential: EV Time-of-Use (TOU) Rate; Pre-Owned EV Rebate. Business: none listed. AFDC listing
Oncor (1): Residential: none listed. Business: Fleet Electrification Assessment. AFDC listing
AFDC’s listings are a consistent national inventory, but they can lag program changes and omit some tariffs. For example, Southern California Edison offers separately metered business EV rates (TOU-EV-7, 8 and 9) and San Diego Gas & Electric offers its subscription-based EV-HP rate, neither of which AFDC lists as a business incentive (SCE, SDG&E). That lowers Los Angeles and San Diego on this measure; counting them would add one program type to each utility and would not change the top three.
What is not scored
Permitting speed
No dataset compares charger permitting times across these cities on the same basis. Some cities publish targets or online permitting, but timelines depend on the project, the utility interconnection queue and local review.
Reliability and utilization
Paren publishes these for some metros and states, not for all 10 markets on the same basis.
Price per kWh
Public charging prices vary by site and hour within each metro more than between metros.
What it means
Home charging still decides cost
Public access matters most for drivers without a home charger. In low-scoring markets, check fast-charging options near home and work before buying.
Where demand outruns ports
Few ports per new EV plus high utilization, as in Miami and Los Angeles, point to unmet demand. Utility programs and demand charges still decide site returns.
The gaps are fixable
Make-ready programs, commercial EV rates and faster permitting are the levers a city or utility controls directly.
About this ranking
Markets. The 10 TV market areas (Nielsen designated market areas, or DMAs) with the most new retail EV registrations in the 12 months to Q2 2026, from Experian. Experian reports registrations rounded down to the nearest thousand (for example, “143K+”); we use the rounded figures. Registrations are new vehicles, not all EVs on the road.
Geography. DMA borders are proprietary, so each market is approximated with its core counties (for example, the five-county Los Angeles area and the New York market’s counties in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania). Charging sites are assigned to counties by ZIP code using the Census ZIP-to-county relationship file; population is Census county estimates for July 2025.
Ports. Open public stations in AFDC station data downloaded October 25, 2026, counting Level 2 and DC fast ports; Level 1 and private chargers are excluded.
Scoring. Each measure is scaled from 1 (lowest of the 10) to 10 (highest), then summed, with public ports per new EV counted twice. Because the scale is relative, a market can score 1 and still have thousands of chargers.
Utilities. Main utilities: Los Angeles (LADWP and SCE), Bay Area (PG&E), New York (Con Edison and PSE&G), Miami (FPL), Seattle (Seattle City Light), Dallas–Fort Worth (Oncor), San Diego (SDG&E), Denver (Xcel Energy), Chicago (ComEd), Atlanta (Georgia Power). Other utilities serve parts of each market. In Texas’s competitive market, retail electricity providers, not Oncor, offer EV rate plans.
Drive Economics has no affiliation with, sponsorship from, or endorsement by any charging network, automaker, utility, city or program named here.