Electric vehicles in the US have gone up 87% in the last year – with Elon Musk's Tesla on top

The number of electric vehicles in the U.S. has increased by 87.5 percent in the last year, a new report reveals, but the country will need to speed up infrastructure investment in order to have enough charging outlets to meet the growing demand.

Zutobi, a driver education company, showed a total of 543,610 EVs in America in its 2021 edition of the U.S. Electric Vehicle Charging Point Report – meaning that there are just over a million EVs in the country today.

However, even with the explosion of interest in EVs, they still account for a small fraction of America’s overall car market. The EV share of the overall U.S. car market hit 4.6 percent this year and it’s estimated that only around 1 percent of the 250 million cars, SUVs and light trucks on American roads are electric, according to Car and Driver. 

Separately, Electrek reports that Tesla had cornered 68 percent of the market for electric vehicles in the U.S. – which is down slightly, amid far more competition for consumer EV dollars from companies like Ford, GM and Toyota. 

Out of the top five best selling EVs in the U.S. this year, Tesla produced four of them: Model Y, Model 3, Model S and Model X. Ford’s Mustang Mach-E also cracked the top of the list at number three.

The growth of places to charge EVs is not keeping up with demand. According to Zutobi, there were 98,422 public charging outlets in 2021 and that grew to 128,554, for a 31% increase. 

‘We believe that shortly, more and more people will think about switching to electric cars. It’s not just about reducing emissions, which are vital for our planet, but also about saving money. After all, the increase in fuel costs will significantly affect drivers’ budgets and strain many families,’ Zutobi co-founder Leo Waldenback told Teslarati.

‘But there are many hurdles in the way as well – drivers need to be sure that they can charge their EVs without waiting in long queues, and they also need to know that they aren’t limited to certain areas.

‘This requires significant investments into charging infrastructure across the United States, a massive bottleneck if left unaddressed. 

The report also shows which states have the highest and lowest numbers of chargers, along with the most and least number of registered EVs. 

North Dakota, Wyoming and Mississippi have the largest number of charging points per electric vehicle. 

Perhaps not surprisingly, California, Hawaii and Washington top the list for the highest number of registered EVs. 

California, which recently passed a strict law to require all new cars, pickups and SUVs to be electric or hydrogen-powered by 2035, currently has 425,300 registered EVs out of a total of 13.9 million registered automobiles. 

The report states: ‘While it’s encouraging that more people are choosing to buy electric vehicles, the speed at which chargers are installed clearly needs to improve alongside this, and could be set to do just that in the coming years, with the president promising to have 500,000 installed by 2030.’

President Biden, who has prioritized the promotion of EVs with various tax incentives, recently took credit on Twitter for EV sales having tripled since he took office. The Democrat did not mention Musk or Tesla in his comments. 

Tesla has said it plans to deliver 50 percent over last year’s numbers, which is an ambitious target considering the company delivered over 930,000 vehicles in 2021.  

‘Our new research data confirms a worry that the number of electric vehicles on the roads is increasing much faster than the number of charging stations. Unless addressed, the United States won’t be able to undergo the EV revolution most people expect is around the corner.’