Plug In America WA Survey Results: What EV Drivers Have and Need

Plug In America conducted a survey in January 2025 through March 2025 with 427 respondents that claimed that they lived in Washington and are EV users. The survey covered a few topics including favored EV models, influences, charging opportunities, costs and concerns. 

Charging Accessibility 

93.7% of Washington EV driver respondents report that they have access to an EV charging system at home with 86.4% of them having a Level 2 charger. As expected, the majority of these respondents use their chargers on a daily to weekly basis, totaling 94.7% of the 427 participants. 

In contrast, 76.8% of the EV drivers never charge their vehicle at their workplace. Considering other charging locations, Level 2 public and DC fast chargers were rarely used. The survey later found that most of the EV drivers experience “broken or nonfunctional chargers” at their fast charging network. 

Ultimately, respondents use their home chargers more often as public charging systems are less accessible and unreliable. 

Cost and Influences

Other reports within the survey describe that the top two reasons for purchasing an EV are for environmental concerns and cost savings. 

Yet very few Washington EV drivers actually use the special rates for home EV charging provided by their local electric utility at just 7% of the respondents. However, nearly 92% of the EV drivers wish to see special/discounted rates for home EV charging. 

To read the full results of Plug In America’s survey for EV drivers in Washington, use this document link here to page 48. 

Moving Forward for Washington 

Plug in America emphasized the importance of cost, accessibility, safety and savings for all EV drivers. Fortunately, these possibilities are on the rise in Washington through incentives and policy-making. 

Cost and savings are available in Washington. Washington has introduced a few grant programs to help communities transition and use EVs this year. These programs not only support EV transitions or EV charging infrastructure but also residential, public, business, governmental, and nonprofit organizations projects to maximize assisting all community members.This also increases the electrification of local fleets that can build foundational trust between EVs and potential EV drivers. An essential program that is capable of doing this is the WAEVCP that is open for applications until December 18th 2025. 

If you have been interested in electrifying your fleets through WAEVCP, please reach out to our Grant Manager and Sustainability Analyst, Spencer Bienstock at spencer@nwcleancities.org