New report on US EV charging infrastructure finds continued but slower growth in Q3

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The number of public EV fast chargers moved up and to the right in Q3—but at a slower pace than in the previous quarter.

That’s according to EV charging data provider Paren’s latest quarterly report on EV fast-charging in the US. Despite the slight slowdown, the firm maintains its previous prediction that 16,700 new fast-charging ports will be deployed in the US in 2025.

“Quarter on quarter, the pace of new deployments slowed slightly, following a seasonal pattern,” according to the report. “But EV drivers enjoyed a more robust and extensive network of fast charging stations during the summer. Utilization rates and reliability are noticeably up while prices remained mostly unchanged.”

Key takeaways: According to Paren’s data, chargepoint operators added 699 new fast-charging stations in Q3, down 12% from the previous quarter, for a total of 12,375 stations. Those stations encompassed 4,061 new ports, down 7.7% QoQ, for a total of 64,486 ports. The numbers reflect the fact that charging networks increasingly are building stations with eight or more charging stalls.

Q3 marked a record-setting sales period for EVs as consumers rushed to take advantage of federal tax credits on EV purchases before the incentives expired at the end of September. Analysts widely expect a slowdown in EV sales in Q4.

Meanwhile, Paren expects to see the pace of new charging infrastructure deployments pick up in Q4. The firm largely attributed the Q3 slowdown to typical seasonal patterns.

“Growth remains healthy when you look at the year over year for the port growth,” Bill Ferro, Paren’s CTO and co-founder, said during a webinar. “That growth is 21%, which is phenomenal.”

Tesla led the way on Q3 deployments with 1,820 new ports, representing 44.8% of openings, according to the report. Next in terms of deployments were ChargePoint and Red E, with 300 and 215, respectively.

The report highlighted new charging network Ionna’s addition of 12 new stations with 132 charging ports, and Red E’s climb to third place on Paren’s leaderboard, as the chargepoint operator expanded beyond Michigan.

Every state got at least one new station; California, Texas, and New York were the three states with the most growth.

Other trends: Meanwhile, 45 states saw increases in fast-charger utilization rates, which Paren attributed in part to demand fueled by summer road trips. The top states for increased utilization were Maine, Montana, and New York. Overall, the utilization rate grew from 16.1% in Q2 to 16.7% in Q3.

“What I found interesting when we looked at this data is, we looked across the northern-tier states, from Washington through Montana all the way over to Maine, and we’re seeing nice, healthy increases,” Ferro said. “That tells me a couple of things: One is, the infrastructure is there to support the vehicles that want to travel. And then, No. 2 is that the drivers have enough confidence in that infrastructure to take the great American road trip.”

And while reliability improved across the country, it was a mixed bag on a state-by-state level, with 32 states doing better on reliability, 15 doing worse, and four staying the same. Oklahoma remained the lowest-ranked state, but had the best quarter-over-quarter improvement.

“Overall, these numbers look very positive and indicative of the growth of infrastructure with new, more reliable hardware, the renewed focus on maintenance across the board, and some of the refreshes that are still happening across the country,” Ferro said of the report’s findings.