Electric vehicles (EVs) have taken off across the entire US in 2022, with public interest at an all-time high. With this demand comes an increased interest in available rebates and incentives for installing charging stations for these EVs.
While we know that 70% of the US is currently covered by an EV charger rebate, we wanted to determine where the interest is the highest. To do that, we looked at our RebatePro for EV Chargers and EV Charger Rebate Finder tools. Using anonymized data from the nearly 100,000 requests we have processed so far this year, we were able to determine the areas with the most inquiries.
The data shows that the top 5 states where customers were interested in EV charger rebates were CA, FL, NY, IL, and TX.
1. California
Not surprisingly, California is the country's most searched area, comprising 26% of the searches we processed this year. Long known as the most "green" state in the US, California has been at the forefront of EV adoption. With over half a million registered EVs in the state, they have almost six times the amount of electric vehicles as the second highest state, Florida.
Because of the high demand and interest in California, rebates and incentives are also very tricky here. California has a patchwork of programs covering the state, so it's hard to know which programs apply to which areas. The incentive programs in California can also run out of money quickly. Some programs have gone through their entire funding in as little as a week. It makes it one of the most challenging states to find, estimate and apply for EV charger rebates.
2. Florida
The state with the second highest interest in EV charging rebates is Florida. With almost 22 million residents, Florida is the third most populated state in the US, so it makes sense there are a lot of requests from that state.
Currently, around half of the state is covered by a rebate or incentive for EV charging stations. Most of the rebate programs in Florida are run by individual electric utilities; there are currently no state or municipal programs available. The biggest utility in the state, Florida Power & Light, which covers roughly 40% of the state by area, doesn't offer any rebates for EV chargers at this moment. Thankfully, they are working on a residential program that should launch before the end of this year.
3. New York
With an estimated 8,345 publicly available charging ports, New York has the second-highest amount of chargers in the US. But interest for the installation of new EV chargers is still high in New York.
New York has a variety of rebate programs available for both residential and commercial installations. While there were some state-wide programs in the past, the electric utilities provide most of the currently available rebates.
In New York, most programs cover a certain percentage of the cost of an EV charger installation rather than a set dollar amount per charger. The actual percentage will vary depending on the level of charger, type of customer and utility.
4. Illinois
While Illinois has always been at the forefront of energy efficiency incentives, they're severely behind the curve in terms of EV charger rebates. None of the major utilities in the state are currently offering any kind of incentive.
A state program was originally scheduled to debut in July but has had repeated setbacks and delays. The incentive is reported to provide up to 70% of the installation cost for commercial level 2 and level 3 (DCFC) stations. Unfortunately, level 2 residential rebates don't seem to be in the near future.
Based on the high demand in searches, these programs will certainly be very popular once they become available.
5. Texas
Being the second largest state in the US, it's not surprising that Texas is in the top five most searched states. It also is the state with the third-highest number of registered EVs, so it makes sense that people are trying to figure out if they can get incentives for installing an EV charger in their homes or businesses.
Unfortunately, at this time, only 21% of the state has an incentive available. While Texas previously had a couple of state-wide programs, only a handful of utilities currently offer rebates.
All 50 States Can Qualify for the Federal Tax Credit
Of course, customers across the entire US can potentially use the federal tax credit. The 30C Tax Credit was just extended until 2032 through the Inflation Reduction Act (learn more here). For this year, the program remains relatively similar to the previous years. Starting in 2023 though, there will be new qualifications such as using prevailing wage and being installed in eligible areas.
Growing Rebate Options to Meet Demand
More and more new programs are debuting to help customers reduce the cost of installing EV charging stations. We've seen an impressive 17% increase in the coverage of rebates since July, most of that being for Level 2 commercial installations. These facilities can include offices, multi-family developments, hotels or retail. In addition, we expect Level 3 (DCFC) rebates to increase this year and next year as more funding becomes available.
Find All The Possible EV Charger Rebates
RebatePro for EV Chargers
RebatePro for EV Chargers is a custom-built tool to help find and track rebates for EV chargers in both commercial and residential applications. It was designed from the ground up to reflect the unique way EV charging rebates work. It tracks all five sources of EV charger rebates and makes it easy to narrow down which would apply to an specific installation.
Rebate Finder for Websites
Rebates and incentives are one of the best tools to help sell EV chargers to both consumers and businesses. Help customers find rebates for your specific products by integrating a Rebate Finder into your website. You can have this tool up and running on your website with minimal work. The data is constantly updated, so you don't need to worry about maintaining the information.
