How Utah’s electric vehicle charging prices compare to the rest of the U.S.

At $3.11 per gallon, Utah’s average cost for regular gasoline is one of the more expensive in the U.S. a week before Thanksgiving, about a nickel higher than the national average, according to AAA.
However, with an average of about $0.29 per kilowatt-hour, the organization says the Beehive State is home to some of the cheapest electric vehicle prices in the nation right now.
AAA announced Thursday that it will now track electric vehicle charging costs as part of its fuel price index in response to a growing demand in the market.
“With nearly 2 million members living in households with one or more electric vehicles, AAA recognizes the need to track the average kilowatt-per-hour cost for all levels of public charging by state,” officials wrote in a statement.
The national average debuted at about $0.35 per kilowatt-hour, making Utah’s average roughly a nickel per kilowatt-hour lower than the average. Only Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and Texas have lower rates in the inaugural report, while Hawaii, West Virginia, Montana, New Hampshire and Arkansas have the highest rates — ranging from $0.42 to $0.57 per kilowatt-hour.
The scattered nature is much different from the gasoline prices right now, where the cheapest prices are centered across the lower Midwest and most of the Southeast. The highest gasoline prices are centered across the West and Northeast right now.
Additional data shows which states have the most public electric vehicle charging stations. Utah’s average is based on a review of the costs at 544 public charging stations scattered across the state, which makes it 21st in terms of available charging stations for anyone to access.
There were a little over 37,000 electric vehicles and 76,000 hybrid vehicles registered in Utah this year, according to the Utah Division of Motor Vehicles. The number of electric vehicles alone is nearly seven times higher than what the agency reported five years ago.
Meanwhile, the number of public charging stations in U.S. states is fairly close to the country’s population leaders, as one would suspect. However, it also indicates which states have jumped onto the electric vehicle trend faster than others.
California leads the nation with over 11,300 stations, nearly double any other state. New York, Massachusetts, Florida and Texas round out the top five. Wyoming and North Dakota are the only states with fewer than 20 public stations, at least at the time of the first report. Alaska, Montana and Louisana round out the bottom five in access.
Of course, many more are on the way in Utah and across the West. Charge West, a project aiming to add stretches of electric vehicle charging stations across rural highways across Utah, as well as Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming, picked up last month.
“(It) will revolutionize electric transportation in the West,” Tammie Bostick, director of Utah Clean Cities and lead of the Charge West project, said as it launched.