Nationally, EVs represented 9.6% of new light-duty vehicle sales in the first quarter of this year and up from 9.3% in the first quarter 2024, according to the report.
The increase in sales is a good sign for the industry.
“In Ohio for 2024, like the rest of the country, EV sales were supported by increased availability of EV models that better reflected consumer preferences for select brands and pricing,” Brent Gruber, executive director of the EV practice at J.D. Power, told this news outlet. “At the same time, changes to federal incentives made it easier for consumers to utilize those offerings, which spurred EV sales.”
Despite the low percentage of EV sales in Ohio, Tyson Jominy, senior vice president of data and analytics at software, consumer intelligence and data analytics company J.D. Power, said the first half of 2025, overall, has shown “very strong industry growth” and has been the best first half of the year for EV sales since 2022.
Ohio’s market share puts it at No. 30 among U.S. states, according to the report. It continues to lag behind the national average of 9.6% of new light-duty vehicle sales in the first quarter of 2025.
That marked a slight dip from the 10.9% share in the fourth quarter of 2024, but an improvement over the 9.3% posted during the same period last year.
“The states that are at the top (of the list for EV market share), more or less, are CARB-aligned states,” Jominy said, referring to states that have adopted the emissions standards set by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). “It’s a little bit of a ‘chicken and the egg.’ What do we see with buyers on the West Coast? Is it the state mandating certain level of sales (that) is creating the sales, or is there a natural inclination toward those buyers to want to get more fuel efficient and alternative fuel vehicles?”
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation report said there are 149 different electric vehicle models available in the U.S., showing that carmakers are still adding new options even though demand rises and falls.
Several factors, including state and federal incentives, dealer support, and increased model availability, are contributing to the rise in EV adoption in Ohio, experts said.
“At the end of 2024 and into early 2025 there was a lot of discussion around the potential discontinuation of the federal tax credit,” Gruber said. “Talk of that discontinuation motivated consumers to act on EV purchases to take advantage of the incentives.”
EV sales subsided at that time once it became apparent that the incentives were not going away, he said.
“Now that federal EV tax credit is slated to be discontinued later this year, it’s likely we’ll see an increase in EV sales prior to those credits ending,” Gruber said.
By the end of March, there were 6.2 million EVs on the road nationwide, supported by 203,617 publicly available charging outlets, a ratio of 30 EVs for every public port, according to the report. Of those, 52,469 were DC Fast chargers capable of quickly powering vehicles in roughly 20 minutes — 2,721 of which were added this quarter.
Ohio reported 103,721 EVs on the road, backed by 4,528 charging ports, a ratio of 23 EVs for every public port, and 1,183 DC Fast chargers, including 89 new fast chargers added since the start of the year, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation report.
Breanna Badanes, managing director for communications and policy at DriveOhio, told this news outlet Monday that as of July 2, there are 3,385 Level 2 ports in Ohio and 1,257 fast-charging ports. Of the fast charging, 94 stations (459 ports) have at least four ports with a minimum power of 150 kilowatts per port.
“As people see more and more chargers, they’re going to become more and more comfortable” with the idea of purchasing an electric vehicle, said Rap Hankins, president of Drive Electric Dayton.
Ohio’s ratio of 23 EVs per charger was better than the national average of 30 EVs per port, earning the state a ranking of No. 25 for infrastructure availability, according to the report.
Hankins said numerous chargers being installed across Ohio is a “really positive” sign of where the state is headed.
“You’ve got General Motors putting chargers in Ohio, you’ve got Walmart putting chargers in Ohio, you have brand new chargers in at IKEA (in West Chester Twp.),” Hankins said. “And while they claim that the number of cars that were purchased in Ohio was 5.1%, we know that about 8% of the people in the state of Ohio drive electric vehicles.”
Electric vehicles are on track to make up more than 25% of global car sales this year and could exceed 40% by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency‘s latest Global EV Outlook report.
A recent J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Electric Vehicle Consideration Study reveals that 24% of vehicle shoppers said they are “very likely” to consider purchasing an EV and 35% said they are “somewhat likely,” both of which remain unchanged from a year ago.
Despite improvements in the public charging infrastructure, a perceived lack of available charging remains the number one reason for EV rejection, Gruber said.
“Many consumers don’t quite feel confident in charging availability enough to purchase an EV,” he said. “The industry needs to do a better job of making consumers more aware of the dynamic between home and public charging as well as how prolific public chargers are.”
Jominy said what J.D. Power primarily hears from consumers are concerns about range and charging availability.
“To really help effect a change for EVs in any market, consumers need to see those charging stations,” Jominy said. “They need to be visible in a lot of places and consumers need to be reassured that if they get into the EV ... they’re not going to be driving around, and suddenly there’s nowhere to charge.”
Besides EV industry efforts, Jominy said state and local leaders should educate the public “about the availability of chargers, and really about the EV lifestyle, in general.”
“If you own a home and you have off-street parking or a garage, you can charge your EV at home and every morning, when you wake up, you can have a full, charged battery,” Jominy said. “That’s really the superpower of EVs, is every day you wake up with maximum range.”
Most EVs have highly integrated technology that makes it easy to find charging stations — often more seamlessly than traditional vehicles using traditional phone apps, he said.
Those built-in maps on EVs constantly show nearby chargers, and automakers have intentionally simplified the charging experience to address range concerns, Jominy said.
EV sales are expected to spike in the third quarter because a $7,500 tax credit is ending soon. After that, selling EVs may become more difficult because many automakers still do not offer electric versions of popular cars — especially three-row SUVs, he said.
In the long run, though, EVs will become easier to charge and drive as technology and infrastructure improve, Jominy said. And unlike gas cars, EVs actually get cleaner over time as the energy used to charge them becomes greener, he said.
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