The Electric Vehicle Adoption Index: These are the Places Best Prepared for EVs

With the looming threat of climate change, many people, companies and nations are looking to reduce their use of fossil fuels and produce a lower carbon footprint. One way they are attempting to implement this is by making road travel better for the environment, by way of switching to electric vehicles (EVs) rather than traditional cars powered by petrol or diesel-powered internal combustion engines.

Many countries have set lofty electric vehicle targets, for example in the United Kingdom the government is committed to only selling new electric vehicles from 2030. Meanwhile, Joe Biden has announced that he would like half of new American cars to be electrically powered by the same date.

But which countries are best prepared for electric vehicle adoption? By taking into account the data for numerous different factors we have been able to establish the best countries in Europe for EV use. On top of this, we have analyzed the EV readiness of the United States and Australia too.

The Best-Prepared European Countries for EV Adoption

1: Norway, total EV readiness score: 8.14/10

The country most ready for EV adoption is Norway, which achieved a score of 8.14. Norway has the highest percentage of electric vehicles in the world, with an impressive 11.83% of their entire vehicle fleet being electric. And this figure is rising quickly, since 55% of new car registrations in 2021, so far, have been EVs.

To top it off, Norwegian strategists have also covered the landscape with 35.79 public charging stations per km of road to help charge all of their electric vehicles.

2: UK, total EV readiness score: 4.73/10

Great Britain is the second most EV ready country in Europe, although its overall score was some way behind that achieved by Norway. The UK has the most EV searches per 100,000 people with 139.65, showing that there is a widespread public interest in EV adoption.

3: Netherlands, total EV readiness score: 4.73/10

Next is the Netherlands with a score of 4.73/10, this makes the Netherlands the third most EV ready nation in Europe. The number of charging stations encapsulates the Dutch determination to become EV ready, as there are 66,665 in place across the nation, this is equal to 21.82 per km of road. 2.06% of all vehicles registered in the country are electric, which is the third highest in Europe.

The Best-Prepared US States for EV Adoption

While we have established the European nations most ready for electric vehicles, we now turn our attention to the other side of the Atlantic and see how the gas-guzzling nation of old is adapting to the future. The American attitude towards car making has often been the bigger the better, especially in the ’50s and ‘60s where the Detroit giants produced copious cars with huge engines and luxurious trimmings.

But in recent years US car making innovation has turned to electric cars, with Elon Musk’s Tesla leading the way from their Californian base. But are the US citizens ready to set aside their muscle cars and big pickup trucks, and ready to adopt electric vehicles?

In August of this year, Joe Biden made a big statement regarding the future of American motoring, as the president issued an executive order pledging that 50% of new American vehicles will be EVs by 2030. However, some environmental groups did not think this was good enough as it is not legally binding, and therefore (they believe) the automotive industry will ignore the target. Although EV sales have risen by an average of 17% in the US every year, this is far lower than the 60% in Europe and the 36% in China, and they are also lagging in terms of public charging stations.

Top Three EV Ready US States

The factors that we used to determine the most EV ready US states are: the number of registered EVs and the percentage of all registered vehicles that are electric. As well as this the number of public chargers, and how many EVs and the average number of miles there are per charging point. By combining these we were able to calculate a score out of ten for all fifty states, plus the District of Columbia.

1: District of Columbia: EV Ready Score: 8.16/10

Although it is not technically a state, the US capital district of Columbia is the most EV ready state. This is largely to do with the fact that there is a public EV charger every 2.66 miles on average, this is far better than the national average of one charger every 121 miles. 0.68% of all vehicles registered in the district are EVs, and this is the fourth-highest in the country for this factor.

1: California – EV Ready Score: 8.16/10

California is the joint most EV ready state with a ginormous score of 8.16, The Golden State is the only one with over 1% of all vehicles registered being electric, they also have over 30,000 more public charging points than the national average. However, because there are so many EV’s in California the amount of public charging points struggle to keep up.

3: Vermont – EV Ready Score: 7.55/10

Vermont is the third most EV ready state in America. Vermont only has 2.68 EV’s per charging point, which shows that their infrastructure is ready to cope with EV’s. Furthermore there is a charging point every 17.13 miles on average, much lower than the US average of 121 miles.

Australian EV Readiness

Electric vehicles are also increasing in popularity Down Under, as Australia is increasing their EV sales year on year. According to the Guardian, electric vehicle sales tripled during 2019. In total there were 6,718 sold in 2019 and this takes the Australian total of EVs registered to just under 15,000 which is over 30,000 less than the average in Europe, so Australia is lagging behind.

Some Australian territories are doing better than others in terms of EV readiness and by combining multiple factors we have given each state a score out of ten.

Top three EV ready Australian Territories

1: New South Wales – EV Ready Score: 8.67/10

Australia’s biggest territory by population is the most EV ready area of the country, 8 million New South Wales residents purchased 832 EVs in 2019 which was the most in the country.

2: Victoria – EV Ready Score: 6.72/10

Victoria is home to the electric Melbourne Storm, but unlike their premier NRL team, Victoria will have to settle for second place in terms of EV readiness. There are over 4,000 registered EVs in the state, and 536 chargers.

3: Queensland – EV Ready Score: 5.64/10

The third highest-ranking Australian territory was Queensland with a score of 5.64, this is slightly higher than the national average of 4.93.

Methodology

Europe

• Most of the data for EU countries plus other large European nations was sourced from EAFO.
• The number of searches was sourced from Google Keyword Planner search data between and relates to searches made August 2020 and July 2021.
• Electricity prices per kWh were sourced from Numbeo.
• We then gave each country a normalised score out of ten on each factor before taking a final average score across all factors to discover the overall score for each country.

US

• US background data was found from different sources including Reuters, the Pew Research Center, and USA Facts
• Total car registration numbers were found from government highway statistics.
• The number of electric vehicle registrations as well as the number of electric charging stations came from the alternative fuels data centre.
• Number of miles of road per state was 2018 data sourced from http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/ksdata/ksah/trans/15trans3x.pdf

AustraliaAll Australian data was sourced from their 2020 report from the electric vehicle council.