Electric vehicles: What’s it like to drive one?
Tech columnist Jennifer Jolly takes the Polestar 2 for a spin and lets owners of gas-powered cars know what to expect if they’re considering an EV.
Jennifer Jolly, Special to USA TODAY
- North Dakota, not California, is the best state to charge your electric vehicle
- Wyoming and Rhode Island ranked second and third, respectively, according to the Forbes Advisor list
- Some of the nation’s mid-sized and lesser-populated states dominated best states to charge list
Do you want to guess which is the best state to charge your electric vehicle? California? Washington? Oregon?
nope Surprisingly, it’s North Dakota, according to a recent study by the financial site Forbes Advisor. North Dakota has the best ratio of registered electric vehicles to electric charging stations, at 3.18 electric cars to one charging station in the country.
The state, which has 69 total charging stations statewide, can accommodate all of its 220 registered electric vehicles, according to the study. Not too bad considering it’s typically one of the coldest states in the US come wintertime.
The study, which dug into alternative fuels data from the US Department of Energy, comes as President Joe Biden last week signed the monumental Inflation Reduction Act, which the US hopes to use to help combat climate change.
The historic $369 billion law reportedly contains a $7,500 tax credit for purchasers of new electric vehicles, with no manufacturer caps, and creates a new $4,000 tax credit for people who purchase a used electric vehicle.
Some states, including California and Washington, are mandating that all passenger and light-duty vehicles sold in their state be electric vehicles by 2030 and 2035, respectively.
THE PROS AND CONS OF AN EV: Considering an electric vehicle? Here’s what to expect if you’ve never driven an EV.
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Other top states to charge your electric vehicle
Once again, the other top rankers were surprising: Wyoming is second and Rhode Island third in the Forbes Advisor study.
Wyoming has the second-best ratio of electric vehicles to charging stations with 5.40 electric cars to a single charging station. That’s because Wyoming has 61 electric charging stations and 330 registered electric vehicles in the state, the study said.
Meanwhile, Rhode Island has a ratio of 6.24 electric cars to a single charging station. The state has 253 charging stations and has only 1,580 registered EVs, the study says.
Notice a pattern? Some of the nation’s mid-sized and lesser-populated states dominate this list with Maine, West Virginia, South Dakota, Missouri, Kansas, Vermont and Mississippi all highly ranked.
As for the least accessible states to charge an EV, the study said New Jersey ranks number one with 46.16 electric cars to one charging station. That’s followed by other well-populated states including Arizona, Washington, California and Hawaii in the top five. The remaining five states in the least accessible top 10 include Illinois, Oregon, Florida, Texas and Nevada.
One interesting take is California: the most populous state in the US with nearly 40 million residents, the Golden State has a ratio of 31.20 electric cars to one charging station, said the Forbes Advisor study.
While California ranks as the fourth least accessible state to charge an EV on the Forbes Advisor list, it ranked as the best state to own an electric vehicle, according to a recent study by SmartAsset.com, a personal finance site.
The state was the birthplace of popular EV maker Tesla, before its controversial owner Elon Musk pulled up stakes and headed to Austin, Texas for Tesla’s headquarters. Still, California has the most electric vehicles in the US, cars which drivers save more than $2,100 in estimated annual fuel savings, the SmartAsset study said.
Are electric vehicles becoming more mainstream?
Yes, but slowly.
Registrations for new EVs soared 60% in the first three months of this year, even though new car registrations slid 18% overall, Automotive News and Car and Driver reported, citing Experian data.
EVs now account for 4.6% of all passenger vehicles being sold in the US
Tesla vehicles had the newest EV registrations with 113,882, representing nearly 60% of electric cars registered during that period. In February, Tesla’s Model 3 captured the top spot in Cars.com’s 2021 American-Made Index (AMI), the first all-electric vehicle to top the list in its 16-year history.
Kia came in second with 8,450 based on strong sales of its Niro subcompact. Ford was third with 7,407 registrations, mostly due to its Mustang Mach-E, the electric version of its commercial Transit van, and the just released F150 Lightning pickup.
Hyundai was fourth with nearly 7,000 registrations for its Ionic 5 and Kona compact crossovers, along with the hatchback version of the Ionic 5.
Best states per capita for electric cars
Rank based on number of registered electric cars to a single charging station.
- North Dakota
- Wyoming
- Rhode Island
- Maine
- West Virginia
- South Dakota
- Missouri
- Kansas
- Vermont
- Mississippi
Worst states per capita for electric cars
Rank based on number of registered electric cars to a single charging station.
- New Jersey
- Arizona
- Washington
- California
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Oregon
- Florida
- Texas
- Nevada
Contributing: Jayme Deerwester, Kiera Wingate and Chris Woodyard