Electric vehicle adoption is and will continue to be a hot-button issue, both politically and economically, as the automotive world shifts to a new reality. That said, the changeover to electric vehicles won’t happen quickly, even with tantalizing government incentives and an array of new electric models. iSeeCars recently released a study on the growth of EV adoption over the past five years and found that buyers in some states are picking up more EVs while growth in other states has slowed.
The organization looked at more than 20 million used cars on the road to determine the share across the country. While growth across the country climbed from 33.3 percent last year to a whopping 85.3 percent in 2023, a handful of states grew much faster. The 10 fastest-growing states for EV adoption are:
- Maryland: 123.8%
- Virginia: 126.1%
- North Dakota: 140.8%
- Arkansas: 148.5%
- Wyoming: 150.9%
- Louisiana: 152.9%
- New Jersey: 169.4%
- Colorado: 184.9%
- West Virginia: 200.9%
- Alaska: 272.1%
You might wonder why states like Oregon and California aren’t on the top-10 list. iSeeCars’ executive analyst Karl Brauer believes that could be because there is a saturation point beyond which it’s difficult to increase adoption. “California, Washington, and Oregon are the top three states in terms of alternative fuel vehicle share,” he noted. “But they are also among the lowest in raising hybrid and electric vehicle share over the past five years, suggesting there may be a market threshold for alternative fuel vehicle share, above which it becomes more difficult to grow.”
That said, it’s also logical that buyers in the states on the fastest-growing list were sluggish to move on EVs initially and are just now beginning to catch up. States like Arkansas, West Virginia, and Louisiana haven’t been the most generous with incentives like state tax credits, which could have slowed their initial ascents.
On the other side of the coin, several states have seen slower growth. The 10 slowest states for EV adoption growth, including the West Coast states for reasons already explained, are:
- Georgia: 70%
- Michigan: 67.2%
- Kansas: 65.3%
- South Carolina: 64.1%
- Washington: 63.6%
- California: 63.5%
- Vermont: 53.1%
- New Mexico: 53.1%
- Oregon: 47.8%
- Hawaii: 43.7%
iSeeCars ranked several other states with the best improvements in average fuel economy over the past five years. Virginia, Alaska, Oklahoma, California, and Colorado all saw average mpg increases of 10 percent or more since 2018. The five worst were Kansas, South Carolina, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Hawaii.