Louisiana among states with fewest EV chargers, report finds
Louisiana is one of the states with the fewest electric vehicle charging ports in the U.S., a report from Bumper, a company that provides information for car owners, sellers and buyers.
The report says Louisiana has 191 charging stations with a total of 488 charging ports – around 0.5 ports per 10,000 residents in the state.The national average for ports per 10,000 residents is around 2.94, with Louisiana sitting 84.5% below the national rate.
The state has made expanding its network of electric vehicle chargers a priority with the funding its receiving from the federal infrastructure bill. Through the bill, Louisiana is set to receive around $75 million over a five-year period for EV chargers, the governor’s office announced in February 2022.
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There’s also a chance Louisiana gets some chargers as part of Walmart’s plan to add EV chargers to thousands of Walmart and Sam’s Club stores nationwide, though there’s no information on whether any Louisiana stores will be getting chargers.
According to Bumper, 39 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes have no EV charging ports. Of the 25 that do, none had a per 10,000 resident rate above the national average. Only five had more than two chargers per 10,000 residents: Lincoln (2.79), Natchitoches (2.7), West Feliciana (2.66), Orleans (2.58), and Calcasieu (2.14).
Nationwide, Bumper found there was a clear gap in EV charger access between wealthy and low-income counties. The top 40% of counties by per capita income account for nearly 90% of all the charging ports in the U.S.
The bottom 20% for per capita income accounted for a little less than 2.1% of all charging ports nationwide.
It’s a similar story in Louisiana. The top quarter of parishes by income – those with a per capita income of $54,000 or more in 2021 based on Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis data – have 73.8% of the state’s charging ports and 78% of the charging stations.
The quarter of parishes with the lowest per capita income – less than $45,000 – have no charging ports or stations, according to the Bumper data.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, Louisiana had around 3,200 fully electric vehicles, in addition to 2,000 plug-in hybrid vehicles and 26,000 hybrid electric vehicles in 2020.
At the same time, Louisiana had around 3.2 million gas-powered vehicles and 115,000 diesel-powered vehicles. But Louisiana has seen its share of electric vehicles rise substantially over recent years.
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In 2016, Louisiana had around 3.7 million light-duty vehicles, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Of those cars, around 82.4% were gasoline-powered and 4.1% were powered by diesel. In total, there were only around 18,600 combined fully-electric, plug-in hybrid, or hybrid electric cars across the state – making up around half a percent of all cars in Louisiana.
By 2021, the state had around 3.8 million cars, an increase of 2.7% since 2016. Around 83.8% of the cars were gasoline-powered, and the number of gas-powered cars rose by 4.5%. The number of diesel vehicles fell by 24.5%, making up around 3% of all vehicles.
While EVs still made up a small percentage of the total cars in the state, they did see a significant increase. The state had around 31,200 total electric or hybrid vehicles – an increase of around 67.7% since 2016 – making up around 0.81% of all vehicles in the state.
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This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Louisiana one of the states with fewest electric vehicle chargers
