The Growing Disconnect Between EV Sales and Charging Infrastructure
ChargePoint data shows 190,000 new charging ports installed globally in 2025, yet utilization outpaced installed capacity by 20% as the network logged a 34% jump in sessions, according to a report from InsideEVs.
Darren Prentiss·updated August 03, 2026
The gap is structural: global EV sales climbed 20%, Europe added 33%, and the U.S. recorded its second-best sales year on record — fleet growth the hardware build rate cannot match.
The Utilization Gap
ChargePoint's own telemetry draws a clean line between ports deployed and ports occupied. 190,000 new Level 2 and DC fast points went live last year. Sessions rose 34%. The resulting per-port utilization delta is the core bottleneck: the charging fleet is running hotter, not larger relative to demand.
Two datapoints sharpen the picture. 16% of all AC charging events now come from plug-in hybrids — vehicles with smaller batteries that hit the same ports more frequently. Roughly 60% of total driving miles the network has ever enabled were logged in just the last two of its 18 years of operation. The load curve is steepening.
Retail Build-Out as Counterweight
Walmart has become the second-largest public charging operator in the U.S. behind Tesla, according to Bloomberg reporting cited by Jalopnik. Between January and June, the retailer added 46 stations with 380 cords, bringing its total to 326 stations across roughly 4,600 stores.
Live counts diverge across trackers. Walmart's website lists 69 active sites with 145 in the pipeline, while Wattmart tracks 96 open and 119 under construction. Texas leads the expansion with 37 new sites, followed by Florida (15), Illinois (14), and North Carolina (13). Roughly 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart — a structural advantage over greenfield DC sites. Several of those expansion states — Texas, Florida — overlap with host venues for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, where summer event traffic will compound existing utilization pressure on local charging infrastructure.
What to Watch
ChargePoint expects the mismatch to widen in 2026 unless installation rates accelerate. Retail deployments are pulling weight, but the utilization math still favors the demand curve. For buyers without dedicated home charging, port occupancy is now a function of time of day, not just location. Plan around that.