Switched on

The currently sparse population of charging stations will grow rapidly over the coming years as multiple EVs begin to enter the market.

An ongoing concern about the viability of full-and partial-electric vehicles (EVs) is whether there will be a sufficient charging infrastructure to “fuel” them. At least for now, at first light of the EV age, there's a healthy ratio of EVs to public charging stations.

But that's mainly because there are very few production EVs on the road today, the Tesla Roadster being the notable exception in the U.S. None of the major automakers has sold any to the public in the U.S., although an unknown number of demonstration EVs from several OEMs are being driven on U.S. roads for testing and data collection. Nissan with its pure-electric Leaf, General Motors with its Chevrolet plug-in hybrid Volt, and Ford with its Transit Connect Electric have announced their intention to begin selling the EVs in the U.S. before year's end. Those automakers and almost all other major ones, along with many smaller ones, are planning to introduce more EV models in coming years.