Electric Car Charging Stations in Wisconsin

As of 2022, the majority of Wisconsin’s electric car charging stations are in Milwaukee and Madison—but more are being built every day!
Written by Patrick Price
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
Reports regarding the total number of electric car charging stations in
Wisconsin
vary widely. Some sources estimate the total to be around 500—though those figures only include Level 2 and Level 3 charging stations. Online EV charging resources, such as PlugShare, have listings for nearly 2,000. 
If you’re an EV owner or
driving around Wisconsin
, you’ll need to know where the nearby charging stations are, how much they cost to use, and how you can find new ones as they continue to be built.

Where to find electric vehicle charging stations in Wisconsin

There are a few different kinds of EV charging stations out there. Before you head out to the nearest option, you’ll need to know which type of station you’re looking for. 
Let’s take a quick look at the four major kinds of charging stations available in Wisconsin: 
  • Level 1: You won’t see too many Level 1 charging stations out in public. They’re not very popular, since they take about 24 hours to fully charge a car. Pumping out a measly 120 volts, they’re about as powerful as a standard outlet. On the bright side, these types of stations are often free to use. 
  • Level 2: The most common type of charging station is the Level 2 station. This is the kind that most people have in their homes, as well as the kind you’ll see at most public charging locations. Delivering 220 to 240 volts, on average, Level 2 stations take about four to eight hours to charge a car. 
  • Level 3: The Level 3 stations—or “DC Fast Charging” stations—are less common and more powerful. As demand for faster charging rises, many locations are in a hurry to build more of these. You may not see too many right now, but you can bet they’ll start popping up in the next few years. 
  • Tesla Supercharger:
    Tesla
    , one of the giants of the EV industry, has its own proprietary form of DC fast chargers. Known as Tesla Superchargers, these stations will only work for Tesla Vehicles. They do, however, tend to charge vehicles in as little as half an hour.  
As mentioned above, the number of available charging stations is on the rise in Wisconsin. That said, however, they’re still not nearly as common as old-fashioned gas stations. Navigating the Badger State in your EV is going to require some planning and coordination—otherwise, you could run out of power far from home! 
Fortunately, there are more than a few online resources designed to help EV owners find charging stations wherever they are. Using these maps, you’ll always know where the nearest station is. 
Here are just a couple of the most popular online station-finding resources: 
  • ChargeHub
    :Lists Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and Tesla Supercharger stations anywhere in the United States.
  • PlugShare
    : Shows the total number of stations in every U.S city, displays station pricing, posts customer reviews, and provides detailed parking information for open stations. 

Wisconsin cities with the most EV charging stations

City
Total number of public charging stations
DCFC stations
Tesla stations
Free stations
Milwaukee
334
63
30
31
Madison
290
52
27
16
Marinette
269
12
8
0
MORE: How to choose an eco-friendly car

How much does it cost to charge an electric car in Wisconsin?

If you’re willing to wait at a Level 1 charging station, you can usually find free charging somewhere—at least in Wisconsin’s larger cities. If, on the other hand, you have somewhere to be sometime this week, you’ll want to use a Level 2 station—which you’ll almost always have to pay for. 
In Wisconsin, prices for Level 2 EV charging tend to be between $0.30 and $0.60 per kilowatt hour. Of course, it varies from one station to the next. For the most part, though, you should be able to fully charge your car for $10 or less—maybe $15 at the most, if your EV’s battery is very large and the charge is very low when you start charging. 
Many major businesses, such as Walmart, are now installing charging stations at their store locations and offering subscription services for unlimited free charging and/or discounted charging prices. 

Wisconsin electric vehicle incentives

For now, the vast majority of charging stations in Wisconsin are concentrated in
Madison
and
Milwaukee
. As the demand for EVs continues to rise, however, you can expect to see more and more stations in the less cosmopolitan areas of the Badger State. 
On top of the general nationwide trend toward increased EV usage, the state of Wisconsin has implemented a number of incentive programs to speed things along even more. 
While the Wisconsin Department of Transportation's innovative new
Wisconsin Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Plan
(WEVIP) works to improve the state’s EV support infrastructure, other programs (such as the Renewable Fuel Producer Excise Tax and Inspection Exemption and the Vehicle Battery and Engine Research Tax Credit) provide corporations with financial incentives to further research new and better forms of EV technology. 
Unlike most states, the Wisconsin state government does not provide many direct rebates or incentives to its residents in order to encourage the transition to EVs on an individual level. Instead, the state opts to delegate that responsibility to utility providers and private corporations—encouraging businesses to offer EV-related rebates and incentives to their customers. 
Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) and Barron Electric Cooperative (BEC) are two of the largest organizations to take part in this private sector approach to EV incentivization—but there are many more. 
While the state government may not be offering too many incentives for EV use, they are taking considerable action to impose new laws and regulations to encourage the transition. Just recently, Wisconsin created a new Climate Change Task Force and joined several of its neighboring states in signing the Regional Electric Vehicle (REV) Midwest Plan
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