Arizona’s not the only EV state
Arizona made it into the top ten with 28,770 EVs. That places it in seventh place, making it one of the top ten states to go electric. This means about 4 in every 1,000 residents have an EV. That's not much, but Arizona has a plan to increase this number.
Add in the fact that gas prices are rapidly going up, and at least for the moment, going electric seems like a win-win. There is one problem, however, which is going to take some time in order to fix.
Electric vehicles don’t have enough charge
When looking at the bar graph from the U.S. Department of Energy, some states don't seem to have enough EVs to even rank a bar, like Alaska, Montana, South Dakota, and West Virginia. Many of these states have rural areas that can last hundreds of miles, which makes driving an EV a bit of a challenge because there aren't enough EV charging stations.
This is the problem currently preventing Arizona from rising through the ranks. In an interview with the Tucson Weekly, Jerry Asher, the vice president of the Tucson Electric Vehicle Association, stated that "Arizona is growing by leaps and bounds in major areas, but still struggling out there in the hinterlands."
It's a valid point. The one area that gasoline powered vehicles tops EVs is the convenience of filling up. It takes ten minutes tops to fill up at a gas station. There are also plenty of stations available, so if you are running low on gas, you just drive a block or two down the road and find a station.
Some stations are now being built at grocery stores and libraries, which helps. It's still not nearly prolific enough to tempt many owners to give up their gasoline powered vehicles, however.