EV charging deserts and charger reliability
About four in ten U.S. counties are EV charging deserts, by ChargingNear.me's county test. A charger on a map is not the same as a charger that works when you arrive. Drivers need both coverage and proof of recent use before they plan a trip around one plug.
The numbers
- 1,307of 3,144 U.S. counties are flagged as charging deserts, 41.6%, as of November 6, 2026.ChargingNear.me, November 6, 2026
- 23.3 millionpeople live in those counties.ChargingNear.me, November 6, 2026
- 1,923non-Tesla DC fast charging stations have a NACS plug; ChargePoint runs 741 of them.ChargingNear.me, November 6, 2026
What I see from the operator's seat
ChargingNear.me flags a county as a charging desert when it has no public DC fast charger or fewer than one public charging port per 10,000 residents. That definition catches two different problems. One county has no fast charging at all; 1,228 counties are in that group. Another has a fast charger but too few ports for the people who live there.
Texas has 121 of its 254 counties flagged. North Dakota has 41 of 53. Where chargers are few, a single broken charger can leave a driver with no nearby backup.
Reliability is the second story. A listing can be out of date. I show when each station was last verified because that date matters more to a driver than the number of pins on a map.
Quotable lines
“A charger on a map is a promise. A charger that worked this morning is a fact.” — Ross D. Blankenship, founder of ChargingNear.me
“In a charging desert, one broken plug is not an inconvenience. It is the whole trip.” — Ross D. Blankenship, founder of ChargingNear.me
“Count working ports per resident, not pins per map.” — Ross D. Blankenship, founder of ChargingNear.me
Five story angles
- Which counties in your state are charging deserts, and how many people live there.
- How a driver plans a trip through a county with no public fast charger.
- What the move to NACS plugs means for non-Tesla charging networks.
- Why a charger listed online may not work, and how drivers can check before they go.
- Who pays to fix a charger in a county with low traffic.
Frequently asked questions
How many U.S. counties are EV charging deserts?
1,307 of 3,144 counties, or 41.6%, in ChargingNear.me's county data, version 2, November 6, 2026. About 23.3 million people live in them. 1,228 of those counties have no public DC fast charger at all.
What counts as a charging desert?
A county with no public DC fast charger, or fewer than one public charging port per 10,000 residents.
How many non-Tesla fast chargers have NACS plugs?
1,923 non-Tesla DC fast charging stations, in ChargingNear.me's NACS data, version 2, November 6, 2026. ChargePoint has the most, 741, and California leads with 414.