Where are America's EV charging deserts?

As of November 6, 2026, ChargingNear.me flags 1,307 of the country's 3,144 counties as charging deserts. That is 41.6% of counties, home to about 23.3 million people.

I built ChargingNear.me to help drivers find chargers that work. The county data answers a simple question: where can a driver not count on public charging at all?

What counts as a desert

A county is flagged as a charging desert when it meets either of two tests. It has no public DC fast charger, or it has fewer than one public charging port per 10,000 residents.

Those tests catch different counties. Most deserts fail the first test. 1,228 counties, home to about 19.1 million people, have no public DC fast charger at all. The rest have fast charging but too few ports for their population.

The difference matters for a story. "No fast charger" and "not enough ports" are separate problems with separate fixes. I keep them apart in the data so a reporter does not have to guess.

Where they are

Texas has the most desert counties in absolute terms: 121 of its 254 counties are flagged. Texas has many small counties, so a long drive across West Texas can cross several in a row.

North Dakota has 41 of its 53 counties flagged, more than three in four.

The flag does not say why a county lacks charging. Traffic, available power and installation cost all play a part, and they differ from county to county.

For a driver, the practical rule is simple. Check the next fast charger before leaving the interstate, and check when someone last confirmed it worked.

The flag is a county-level measure. A large county can have a fast charger at one end and none for many miles at the other. A small county can be flagged even when a charger sits just across its line. I report the flag as a starting point for a story, not the final word on any one town. The file also lists the distance from each county's center to the nearest fast charger, which helps.

Why deserts persist

A fast charger is expensive to install and needs a strong power connection. In a county with few EVs, it may sit unused for much of the day. Owners and networks put chargers where the traffic is. That is rational for each charger and leaves gaps on the map.

Reliability makes the gap worse. In a city, a broken charger means driving to the next one. In a desert county, the next one may be much farther. One out-of-service plug can turn a planned stop into a stranded driver.

The NACS shift

Plug standards are changing. Many automakers are moving to the NACS connector, also called SAE J3400, first used by Tesla. As of November 6, 2026, ChargingNear.me counts 1,923 open public DC fast stations off Tesla's network with a NACS plug. ChargePoint has the most, 741. California leads the states with 414.

For desert counties, the plug type matters less than the existence of a working charger. But as more cars ship with NACS ports, the stations that offer both NACS and CCS will serve more drivers per site, which helps where sites are few.

What drivers in desert counties can do

Plan with recent data. Look for stations verified in the last few days, not just listed. ChargingNear.me shows when each station was last confirmed.

Carry a backup. Know the second-nearest charger before you leave, and the Level 2 options near your destination.

Charge at home when you can. Home charging, where you have it, cuts how often you depend on a public plug.

Report broken chargers. A report to the network and to a directory helps the next driver. Note the station, the plug, the time and what went wrong, so the network can find the fault.

What owners and counties can do

A business on a highway exit in a desert county is a candidate site. Ask the utility about available power early. Look for state and utility programs that share installation costs. Pair the charger with something drivers want while they wait: food, restrooms, a store.

Counties can help by mapping their own gaps and sharing them with networks and utilities. A clear map makes the business case easier.

Using the data

The county file lists every county by FIPS code with ports, fast-charging ports, ports per 10,000 residents, distance to the nearest fast charger and the desert flag. It is published by ChargingNear.me under CC BY 4.0. The Research and Data page links the file and a snapshot of the version I cite here.

If you are reporting on your state, start with three numbers: how many counties are flagged, how many people live in them, and how many have no fast charger at all. Then call a driver who lives there.