Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Wednesday that California has surpassed 150,000 chargers installed statewide, including 137,648 Level 2 chargers and 14,708 fast chargers. This announcement comes just weeks after California posted its second highest ever market share in zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sales.
Furthering today’s announcement, California is also expected to receive more than $380 million from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for building out chargers.
“When it comes to zero-emission vehicle infrastructure, California has no peers. The state is all-in on clean transportation, dedicating unprecedented investments to supercharge our transition. We’re building a bigger, better charging network – faster,” said Governor Gavin Newsom.
Rapidly deploying funds
This year, the California Energy Commission (CEC) has approved more than $1 billion in funding for EV charging and hydrogen refueling projects for cars, trucks, and buses. The projects range from deploying chargers in underserved communities to rapid expansion along some of the state’s busiest corridors. A few highlights include:
– $390 million for electric school bus charging.
– $30 million to increase in-state manufacturing of ZEVs and related equipment.
– $12 million for EV charging at apartments and townhouse complexes.
– $5 million to install Level 2 and fast chargers, bus charging ports, solar photovoltaic equipment and battery storage at a destination multi-use park and future Olympic venue in Los Angeles.
Better data collection
California is working hard to make driving and EV even more seamless in the Golden State, including gathering better data to understand where chargers are most needed and tracking the state’s progress in meeting its EV charger goals.
Today’s announcement of updated charger totals is the result of improved data collection by the CEC through the use of additional data sources to track operational chargers. Of the more than 47,000 chargers added to the data set since the end of last year, 24,202 new chargers were installed in the first half of 2024. Each day, more EV chargers are coming online in the state, improving day-to-day life for California’s EV drivers.
California’s ZEV record
Since Governor Newsom’s executive order in 2020 calling for all new car sales to be zero-emission by 2035, ZEV sales have risen dramatically.
A quarter of all new cars sold in California in Q2 of 2024 were ZEVs, according to the California Energy Commission. There were 118,181 ZEV sales in Q2 of 2024, an average of 1,300 sold each day.
There have been nearly 2 million total ZEV sales to date. 34% of new ZEVs sold in the U.S. are sold in California, according to the California Air Resources Board.
60 ZEV and ZEV-related manufacturers are operating in California — leading the nation in ZEV manufacturing jobs.
