Every time I visit California for business or pleasure, I'm amazed at the sheer preponderance of electric vehicles I see everywhere. The state is the original home of Tesla and Rivian, the heart of the tech industry, and has some of the most comically expensive gasoline you can find anywhere in the United States. It's no wonder then that given California's nation-leading EV adoption, charging ports are now more numerous than gas stations are.
That factoid comes from California Gov. Gavin Newsom's office, which explained this week that there are now 48% more EV chargers than gasoline nozzles in the state. "The California Energy Commission (CEC) estimates there are about 120,000 gas nozzles in the state, compared to 178,000 public and shared private chargers," officials said in a news release.
Granted, it's not exactly the same experience as filling up. Officials with the governor's office say that the vast majority of chargers—162,000 out of 178,000—are slower Level 2 chargers. Only about 17,000 are DC public fast chargers, which are the closest analog to a gas station in the EV world. However, as we've reported at InsideEVs previously, DC fast-charging is most ideal for road trips, range-boosts during longer driving stints or for folks without easy home charging access. Across the U.S., the vast majority of EV drivers charge at home.
The state also provided graphs that show how charging access has grown exponentially in recent years, with the number of available plugs nearly doubling in 2024 alone. That makes sense, given how about a quarter of all of California's new car sales last year were EVs, though that growth rate has begun to slow somewhat.
"As the federal government works to make it harder for you to charge your electric car, California is doing the opposite," Newsom said in a statement, taking direct aim at the Trump administration's efforts to de-fund public charging money once allocated by Congress and end the electric vehicle tax credit. The state is working on a $1.4 billion investment plan to expand EV charging and hydrogen fuel access as well. It is also working to improve charger reliability and speed up the permitting of EV charger installation.
It will need all of that and more to meet its zero-emission car goals—if the current federal government doesn't succeed in ending them first, anyway. As nonprofit news organization CalMatters reported recently, California will require 68% of all new cars sold by 2030 to be zero-emission, and by 2035, the sale of gas cars will be banned entirely. That's due to be challenged in court or legislatively by the Trump administration soon, along with California's longstanding ability to set its own, stricter emissions rules that about a dozen other states follow as well.
For now, at least, EV charging is getting better and better in the Golden State. And everything else aside, if you ask me, that beats the hell out of paying $4.65 for a gallon of regular gas.
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
