Electric vehicles, both plug-in and hybrid, represented 9.1% of new light-duty vehicle sales in the second quarter of this year, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. That’s up from 6.6% in the second quarter of 2022 — and when compared to states, the District is a leader.
According to its newly-released state-by-state analysis of the U.S. electric vehicle market, 18.7% of purchases made by D.C. residents were EVs in the second quarter. When compared to states, that ranks the D.C. second only to California — by far the leader — with EVs accounting for 25.9% of sales last quarter.
Other top states for EV sales in the second quarter were Washington, New Jersey and Oregon. Maryland ranked No. 11, at 7.18% of sales. Virginia was No. 12, at 6.84%
The Alliance’s report — which also forecasts electricity infrastructure needs by the end of the decade — notes nearly 355,000 electric vehicles were sold in the U.S. in the second quarter of this year. That’s a 58% increase over the same quarter a year ago. Light truck sales represent 74% of the EV market.
The availability of public EV charging stations is not keeping up with the current market or projected EV sales.
In the first half of this year, the number of available public EV charges increased 11% compared to the first half of last year, while EV sales have increased 57%. The Alliance estimated there are 140,171 publicly available charging outlets in the U.S. for 3.7 million EVs on the road, or a ratio of 26 EVs per charger.
