U.S. Public and Private Alternative Fueling Stations by Fuel Type

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Biodiesel 2 16 79 142 176 304 459 805 633 660 615 633 690 832 783 713 716 704 680 612 712 706 1196 1700
CNG 349 497 1042 1065 1419 1426 1268 1267 1217 1232 1166 1035 917 787 732 731 771 803 869 941 1155 1290 1495 1607 1730 1682 1623 1576 1546 1510 1390 1392
Electric 188 194 310 486 490 558 693 873 830 671 588 465 432 440 484 626 2100 6200 8100 10712 13696 17723 19792 22845 26968 31751 50097 53568 64315
Ethanol (E85) 2 7 32 37 68 71 40 49 113 154 149 188 200 436 762 1325 1699 1982 2296 2494 2519 2616 2840 3012 3095 3379 3627 3786 3946 4351 4452 4495
Hydrogen 7 7 9 14 17 33 51 63 58 56 58 53 51 35 58 63 62 64 63 67 71 76
LNG 72 71 66 46 44 44 36 62 58 40 37 35 38 37 43 43 61 84 103 117 140 137 129 118 106 103 98 94
Methanol (M85) 43 50 82 88 95 106 91 51 3
Propane 3297 3297 3299 3299 4252 4255 5318 4153 3268 3403 3431 3966 3689 2995 2619 2331 2110 2420 2604 2551 2644 2967 2931 3749 3654 3510 3317 3176 2966 2806 2700 2813
Source: Alternative Fuels Data Center and Transportation Energy Data Book
Notes: Between 2011 and 2013, the electric vehicle charging counts are an estimate of the number of geographic locations (i.e., station locations) based on the number of electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) ports because station counts were not captured in these years. See U.S. Public and Private Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure for counts of both EVSE ports and station locations.
This chart shows the trend of U.S. public and private alternative fueling stations by fuel type. Propane stations were the most numerous until 2011, when they were surpassed by electric vehicle charging stations. The growth in the number of charging stations accelerated starting in 2011 following the 2010 increase of electric vehicles offered by major automakers. In 2021 alone, the number of charging stations grew by more than 50% and increased by 20% between 2022 and 2023. The number of E85 stations has been increasing steadily since 2004 as the number of flex fuel vehicles available from major manufacturers has increased. The number of compressed natural gas (CNG) stations decreased between 1996 and 2006 (despite the increase in CNG sales during this time) largely because the average station size was increasing. CNG station counts also decreased after 2016 because of station closures, high repair and operating costs, and fleets transitioning away from CNG. The number of propane stations has also steadily decreased since 2016, which can be attributed to stations beginning to offer only bottle filling and discontinuing vehicle fueling.

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