It's getting easier to find EV charging stations in Utah
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It's getting easier for Utah EV owners to locate public charging stations.
By the numbers: There are almost 30 charging stations per 100,000 residents in Utah, and almost 1,000 charging stations total, according to federal data.
The big picture: There are more than 207,000 publicly available EV charging ports in the U.S. today — up from around 95,000 when former President Biden took office in January 2021.
- That figure tracks with what former Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told a House committee last May. Republicans earlier had complained about delays.
- The total includes 38,000 new chargers — both DC fast-chargers and slower, Level 2 chargers — that were turned on in 2024, according to the U.S. Joint Office of Energy and Transportation.
State of play: EVs and charging have been a chicken-and-egg-problem that's now getting a little easier.
- People won't buy an electric car unless they're confident they have somewhere to charge it.
- Companies won't invest in charging infrastructure without enough EV owners to plug in.
Between the lines: Charging might be getting easier — but the U.S. is still far short of the estimated 1.2 million public chargers that a National Renewable Energy Laboratory report says will be needed by 2030 to support expected EV sales.
Zoom out: Spurring a switch from gasoline-powered cars to battery-electric vehicles had been a key part of Biden's climate agenda.
- He pushed a variety of policies — consumer EV tax credits, manufacturing incentives for carmakers and tougher tailpipe emissions laws — with the intent to make EVs account for 50% of new car sales by 2030.
- He also targeted 500,000 public chargers by 2030 — a goal supported, in part, by $7.5 billion allocated by Congress under the bipartisan infrastructure act.
Reality check: Electric vehicles sales are growing, but far off the expected pace.
- Only 8.1% of new car sales in 2024 were EVs, according to Cox Automotive. Still, that's a record 1.3 million EVs sold.
- Momentum was stronger in the second half, with EVs accounting for 8.7% of total sales.
- A flood of new, more affordable models could help keep that going — even if President Trump kills the consumer tax credits as expected.
Editor's note: Cox Automotive and Axios are both owned by Cox Enterprises.