Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Power Earth

California Now Has 68% More EV Chargers Than Gas Nozzles, Continues Green Energy Push (electrek.co) 278

Posted by EditorDavid from the golden-states dept.
Six months ago California had 48% more public and "shared" private EV chargers than gasoline nozzles. (In March California had 178,000 public and shared private EV chargers, versus about 120,000 gas nozzles.)

Since then they've added 23,000 more public/shared charging ports — and announced this week that there's now 68% more EV charger ports than the number of gasoline nozzles statewide. "Thanks to the state's ever-expanding charger network, 94% of Californians live within 10 minutes of an EV charger," according to the announcement from the state's energy policy agency. And the California Energy Commission staff told CleanTechnica they expect more chargers in the future. "We are watching increased private investment by consortiums like IONNA and OEMs like Rivian, Ford, and others that are actively installing EV charging stations throughout the state."

Clean Technica notes in 2019, the state had roughly 42,000 charging ports and now there are a little over 200,000. (And today there's about 800,000 home EV chargers.)

This week California announced another milestone: that in 2024 nearly 23% of all the state's new truck sales — that's trucks, buses, and vans — were zero-emission vehicles. (The state subsidizes electric trucks — $200 million was requested on the program's first day.) Greenhouse gas emissions in California are down 20% since 2000 — even as the state's GDP increased 78% in that same time period all while becoming the world's fourth largest economy.

The state also continues to set clean energy records. California was powered by two-thirds clean energy in 2023, the latest year for which data is available — the largest economy in the world to achieve this level of clean energy. The state has run on 100% clean electricity for some part of the day almost every day this year.
"Last year, California ran on 100% clean electricity for the equivalent of 51 days," notes another announcement, which points out California has 15,763 MW of battery storage capacity — roughly a third of the amount projected to be needed by 2045.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

California Now Has 68% More EV Chargers Than Gas Nozzles, Continues Green Energy Push More

California Now Has 68% More EV Chargers Than Gas Nozzles, Continues Green Energy Push

Comments Filter:

  • Pull Quote (Score:4, Interesting)

    by packrat0x ( 798359 ) on Sunday September 28, 2025 @10:56AM (#65688254)

    "FEDERAL ZEV INCENTIVES END SEPTEMBER 30

    With federal incentives ending on Sept. 30, 2025, the time to buy a zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) is now. Tax credits up to $7,500 are available for purchase or lease of eligible new ZEVs, which include EVs and hydrogen-fueled vehicles, and up to $4,000 for eligible used ones. Federal incentives for at-home charging and associated battery storage are also available, up to $1,000. Find the right vehicle for you at ElectricForAll.org. "

    So an advertisement for electric vehicles.

    Most of the gain is from LA county, 29,433 09.2023 -> 72,994 02.2025
    most of that from Public Level 2 and Shared Private Level 2.
    Pub2 8,213 -> 25,337
    Pri2 18,893 -> 44336

    I'm still suspicious of these numbers...
    Both Pub2 (Counting Planned as Built) and Pri2 (Labelling Unshared as Shared)

  • Not comparable (Score:3, Insightful)

    by kqs ( 1038910 ) on Sunday September 28, 2025 @10:59AM (#65688260)

    These are not really comparable. Fueling via electric is slower, but many people have home chargers so rarely need public chargers. But I'm glad that the idiots who used to complain "we'll never duplicate our gas infrastructure so electric is bad" will now shut up. Yeah, yeah, of course they'll just whine about something else, but I can dream.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dfghjk ( 711126 )

      "...will now shut up." LOL no they won't.

    • Re:Not comparable (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 ) on Sunday September 28, 2025 @01:21PM (#65688434)

      There's also the entire cost of that petrol infrastructure that gets hand waved by the fact it's just existed for so long but EV charger's don't need mechanical pumps and while we can point out issues of EV charger reliability and should where it exists but I think we've all been to gas stations and anecdote to anecdote a good portion of the time stations will have a bag over at least one of their pumps. The elimination of just plumbing alone in general.

      EV chargers don't need fleets of tanker trucks and fueling depots to bring them the fuel. They don't need refineries to make 3 or some places I've seen 6 grades of gas before we get to diesel and ethanol. A bank of EV chargers is not going to need the massive fire suppression system every petrol station requires as well.

      This isn't to discount our gasoline infrastructure which is an amazing thing that it works so smoothly but it has a cost all those thing considered but it's had it's capital expenses paid for a long time so comparing it to the initial expansion of EV's is not comparable really. Once the EV system is built out the cost to maintain it will be significantly less.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kqs ( 1038910 )

        An important fact about the expansion of EV infrastructure is that most of it is happening separate from EVs. Our electric infrastructure was aging and terrible but is being made more reliable every year. As parts of the country (and world) gain population, it turns out that we need to add better grid infrastructure for the new residences as well as for the EV charging stations. While Texans may think that region-wide outages every year or two are fine, most of us expect more from power to our cities.

        So

  • It's bandwidth that matters (Score:4, Interesting)

    by devslash0 ( 4203435 ) on Sunday September 28, 2025 @11:32AM (#65688312)

    That's fine but what we really need to equalise the number of vehicles we can simultaneously, not raw numbers of nozzles vs chargers.

    What I mean by that is that charging an EV takes significantly longer than fueling a car. Therefore we can achieve a significantly higher throughput of cars served with the same number of nozzles than chargers.

    In practical terms it means that equalising the number of chargers and nozzles is not enough. We need significantly more chargers than nozzles to maintain the same number of vehicles served per unit of time. This ratio is probably roughly proportional to the time it takes to charge, divided by the time it takes to fuel, and I'm guessing we may need 10 times the number of chargers compared to nozzles.

    • Re: It's bandwidth that matters (Score:5, Insightful)

      by paul_engr ( 6280294 ) on Sunday September 28, 2025 @11:51AM (#65688340)
      But you can put that charger at your home and charge over night. I don't see anybody with a petrol pump in their driveway.

      • But you can put that charger at your home and charge over night. I don't see anybody with a petrol pump in their driveway.

        Exactly. Up-thread I dug up that there are about 1.3 million EVs in California. And the article says 800,000 home chargers. That means at 1:1 nozzle-to-charger, the demand for public charging is 61% lower. A single charger is already equivalent to almost three nozzles in terms of supply/demand. Even if you assume a 5-minute pump versus a 60-minute charge, after that 3x multiplier you're already at 1/4 the equivalent throughput.

      • Now if only PG&E would sell me power to make charging my EVs in the driveway cheaper than an equivalent gas car.

        Seriously, it's like $.50/KWH -- more than in Hawaii. At that rate, it's 16Â/mi vs 12-14Â for a decent hybrid (30mpg/$4/gal).

    • One factor you are missing is that we need relatively more chargers in the middle of nowhere where they are less likely to be built or profitable. People need chargers most when they are further from home.

      • Just like we need more gas stations in the middle of nowhere. Since such gas stations must be "less likely to be built or profitable", obviously they don't exist :).

        • The whole point of having an EV is that electricity is cheaper. So there isn't as much profit on a charger in the middle of nowhere, unless they are making gas money which is also unreasonable because electricity is cheaper. Also a station on the highway in the middle of nowhere can move 6 cars through a single pump in an hour and a charger maybe 1.5 cars. So they need 4 times the chargers that a gas station needs pumps. How much will this all cost in the end? 4 times as much as gas?

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by shilly ( 142940 )

            I don’t know why you think the whole point of having an EV is that electricity is cheaper. That’s one point, but there are lots of others, and many people care much more about other points than that one.

        • You can carry a few 5-gallons of gas in the trunk... can you carry a few more charged batteries?

          Sorta like when you drive across Australia.

      • People need public chargers when the impact of oversubscription is most notable. Wait I have been here for something before, ISP, AIRPORT, Dinner in Vegas. The public will pay out the nose for priority in this situation so this will be solved by private industry, but the internet will bitch. So here is the impact, the lowest income people with a EV will toil with their cars in a line. The middle class will overpay to use priority over the "piss on them" to use use the infrastructure with capacity
        • This is my fear.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by shilly ( 142940 )

          Absolutely no-one is buying a rapid charger for their home. A rapid charger is 50kW or more, DC. No one is upgrading their home electricity supply to cope with that. Heck, here in the UK, basically no one is even bothering with three phase AC that can deliver 22kW instead of 7kW, even people living in £10m houses in Hampstead or Chelsea, because the lowest friction use case is: plug in when you get home in the evening and unplug in the morning. A 22kW charger would mean having to go out at 11pm to unp

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Pascoea ( 968200 )

        People need chargers most when they are further from home.

        Really? I spend 95% of my life, and do 95% of my driving, within 45 miles of my house. A level-II charger in my garage would cover the vast majority of my needs. A bank of chargers every 100 miles along major highways would fill that remaining 5%. Those driving patterns match most Americans. Are there exceptions? Of course there are. But for all the bluster of "GaS CaRS aRe BeInG OuTlaWeD!" they aren't going anywhere in your lifetime. Hell, you can still buy leaded gas if you need it for something.

        • Actually Canada was going to do that by 2035 which has now been delayed but it could come back at any time.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Pascoea ( 968200 )
            So was California. Then they "discovered" that replacing 100 years of gasoline infrastructure that fast was a pipe dream. (Forgive the pun)
            • Ours was stopped because of politics. Could start any time.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by Pascoea ( 968200 )

                could start any time

                And I'll be here holding my breath. Trust me, I'm 100% on-board with electric. Depending on how much longer my current dino-burner lasts, if it makes in a few more years, there's a good chance my next car will be an electric of some sort. But I'm also pragmatic. Your unusual use-cases, while I feel like they are slightly exaggerated, absolutely still exist. Farms still exist. Delivery vans still exist. Classic cars, new and old, will always be a thing. And there are 300-million passenger vehicles in use

                • You touched on a big problem. Our economy relies on fossil fuels. Which is bad, because it means we are a lot further away than most people think from saving the environment with this tech.

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by shilly ( 142940 )

                  Delivery vans are rapidly electrifying in the UK. They’re an excellent use case, because of all the stop-start and relatively low miles driven.

                  Farm vehicles are slower, because, well, farmers don’t exactly rush to embrace change. But farms have barns that are great for solar, often have big-ass electricity supplies already, and could really benefit from the self-sufficiency of being able to charge on-site instead of having to go miles to a petrol station.

  • working? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by groobly ( 6155920 ) on Sunday September 28, 2025 @12:18PM (#65688362)

    How many of those EV chargers are functional? Anecdotal evidence indicates not all that many, and many more require an app that doesn't work.

    • Re:working? (Score:4, Informative)

      by nevermindme ( 912672 ) on Sunday September 28, 2025 @02:25PM (#65688502)
      The Youtubers with their own app for rating charge experiences say 80% for every vendor except tesla, 90% for Tesla. Match's the number of pumps that work in southern California at your average neighborhood retailer, or perhaps the 3 days a year everything is frozen in Western Michigan and the pump is taken out by the ice sheet in front of it.

      The real problem is when the entire station with 10+ EV chargers is tripped, on the road between LA and Vegas and the service attendant is 150 miles away with the linecard that is needed to restore service. There are 30+ other EV chargers in the same zipcode, but those are filled with Walmart Shoppers.
  • Still need way more locations and chargers when many of them are broken and when it takes a long time for each car to charge and when even in metro locations you sometimes have to drive miles to queue up to charge. Maybe in another 5 10 or 50 years.

    • No, we just need more private, charge-while-you-sleep infrastructure. At this point I'd only recommend an EV to someone who can wake up to a full battery every morning. Right now that's mostly just home owners and a few apartments and condos, but if you have the option it's really nice. Public chargers are handy for road trips, but completely unnecessary on ordinary days.

      • Going to a gas station never really bothered me that much. Having to constantly be concerned about the charge of my vehicle would be worse I think.

  • Here come the edge cases! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sphealey ( 2855 ) on Sunday September 28, 2025 @12:57PM (#65688412)

    "But I HAVE to be able to hitch the travel trailer to the pickup and drive to Grandma's house in Maine with half my household goods aboard every summer!"

    [Narrator: last time he made that drive was in 2018]

    The ability of archaic ICE vehicle lovers to come up with absurd edge cases for everyday persons (note: not long distance trucks, farm equipment, or heavy machinery which will probably need diesel engines for a long time yet) never ceases to amuse me. Yeah, sure, you need to drive to Boise and back this afternoon; gotcha.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by fluffernutter ( 1411889 )
      I get an 'absurd case' almost every month. I must be the most unusual person in the world. Wanting to travel to cities with bigger airports and more shopping and such.

      • Re: Here come the edge cases! (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Ogive17 ( 691899 ) on Sunday September 28, 2025 @03:06PM (#65688560)
        Having taken my EV on an 1100 mile round trip voyage around the holidays to the mid west (below freezing) - I was able to make just fine with a bit of planning. It took a couple hours longer so I'll admit the convenience of ICE or hybrid vehicles but not like an EV hits a range wall when traveling away from home more than an hour.
        • But you need to plan and you need to be able to spare a couple hours. All I'm saying is that alone precludes many people.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

            But you need to plan and you need to be able to spare a couple hours. All I'm saying is that alone precludes many people.

            You need to plan only as much as you might need a new route if your present route doesn't take you past any fast chargers, or your trip won't have an opportunity to charge. But for those trips, you likely plan as well to get gas so you don't run out while you're out camping.

            Most people do have a general plan on their route - those that don't usually are the ones that end up on the news wh

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by Ogive17 ( 691899 )
            It turned a 8.5 hr drive (one way) to a 10.5 hour drive. Either way it's practically the entire day.

            I've also driven it 200 miles to one of our manufacturing facilities, stopping once on the way to charge for 30 minutes. Good opportunity to stretch out the legs.

            I'll be the first to admit, when i'm on a road trip I want to get there as soon as possible. Sometimes it's not bad to get out and stretch and unwind a bit on the longer trips. Yeah, just sitting in the car for 30-40 minutes during a charge s

      • Maybe you're unusual, but more likely an EV would work for you too.

        How long are those trips you take once a month? Modern EVs have similar ranges to most conventional cars, usually about 250-350 miles. If your trips are less than 300 miles then no problem, you can do it all on a single charge.

        If they're longer than that, you'll need to stop and charge somewhere along the way. But you also would need to stop and get gas in a conventional car, so it's not that different. Charging the EV does take longer,

        • What you are specifying as an EV range is when the vehicle is new, there is no snow or wind, no heater, and at temperatures above zero. At just -17c you can lose 30% of your range according to studies. It's less convenient in an optimal environment already but you can't count on things always being optional. If you are traveling to an airport 4 hours away to grab a flight, I fail to see how a person would even know when to leave with an EV in order to get there at the right time.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by shilly ( 142940 )

        You absolutely are an edge case. You live in semi-rural Canada. There are millions like you, but there are literally hundreds of millions around the world who do not need what you need from a car.

  • Lets see how well these charge when the power company shuts off power for every little first since CA has sued them for starting fires.

  • One gas pump can serve about 100x the miles driven: ICEs refuel less frequently for more miles, and they're done way more quickly.

    So the number of electric chargers has to become something like 1/10th of all garages and parking places, which is many times more than the number of gas pumps in the same area.

Slashdot Top Deals

As of next Thursday, UNIX will be flushed in favor of TOPS-10. Please update your programs.

Close