Most charging happens at home, but not for everyone
The International Energy Agency tracks how electric vehicle owners worldwide actually charge their cars. Private charging means plugging in at home or at a workplace, rather than at a shared public station. The agency finds owners charge privately almost 75% of the time. They use a public fast charger, a station built to refill a battery in under an hour, only 10% of the time. The remaining share, about 15%, covers slower public charging, a MAOWCE calculation from the other 2 figures rather than a number the agency states directly. That average hides who can reach it. A driver needs a driveway, a garage or a workplace charger to use it, and many drivers have none of the 3.
The first 2 figures are stated directly by the International Energy Agency. The third, other public charging, is a MAOWCE calculation, the remainder once the other 2 are subtracted from 100, since the agency states the 75% figure as approximate.
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| Home or work | 75 |
| Public fast chargers | 10 |
| Other public charging | 15 |
Home charger access depends on housing, not choice
Access to a home charger tracks how people live, not what they want. In Norway, 64% of the population lives in a detached or semi detached house, and around 90% of electric car owners there can charge at home. In the European Union, 80% of owners can charge at home. China is the largest electric car market in the world, with 44.3 million electric cars on the road, and only 7% of residents there live in a single family house. Just 52% of electric car owners in China have their own home charger, a figure the agency states as around 50% in the report text and 52% in a table in the same report, both drawn from the same 2025 survey.
The China figure comes from a table in the agency report. The report body text states it as around 50%, both figures drawn from the same 2025 survey.
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| Norway | 90 |
| European Union | 80 |
| China | 52 |
Drivers without a driveway lean on public chargers
A peer reviewed comparison of United States charging station reviews, published in the journal Nature Communications, found only 4% to 16% of drivers with a detached house use public charging. Drivers with no private or semi private parking rely on public charging 31% to 81% of the time. The same study found that disadvantaged communities have up to 73% fewer public charging stations for each nearby resident, within 3 miles, once the count is adjusted for how many local residents rent their home or live in an apartment building.
Both ranges come from the same peer reviewed comparison in the journal Nature Communications.
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| Has a detached house | 4% to 16% |
| No private parking | 31% to 81% |
What the gap looks like in 1 California county
Imperial County, California, turns those national figures into a place. The county has 7 battery electric cars for every 1,000 registered vehicles, against 51 per 1,000 statewide, and electric cars make up only 5% of new car sales there, against 25% statewide. Around 1,200 residents in the county own an electric vehicle, served by just 4 public fast charging stations spread across 4,500 square miles. More than two thirds of low income Californians live 10 minutes or more from a fast charger. Greg Gelman, an electric vehicle owner in Imperial County, described what that gap feels like.
It's been, I won't say a nightmare, but it's been very, very, very inconvenient.
Greg Gelman, an electric vehicle owner in Imperial County, California. Source 4.
Renters and 2 rural counties feel the same gap
Renters and apartment residents face a version of the same problem without owning a house at all. Jeff Allen, executive director of Forth, a transportation electrification nonprofit, described the scale of it.
We have a really large challenge right now with making it easy for people to charge who live in apartments.
Jeff Allen, executive director of Forth, a transportation electrification nonprofit. Source 5.
Some places have no public charger to fall back on either. Ferry County, Washington, population around 7,500, had a single public charging station for several years and now has none. Wise County, Virginia, population around 3,500, has no public charging station at all. Both counties have a median household income around 45,000 to 46,000 dollars and a one way commute of 22 to 25 minutes.