News from the IT community on October 13th: The US public electric vehicle DC fast charging network continues to expand, but the prices at Tesla Supercharger stations are rising.
According to the 2026 Third Quarter US Fast Charging Industry Report released by the electric vehicle charging data platform Paren, from July to September, 4,106 new public fast charging ports were added in the United States, distributed across 664 charging stations.
In terms of the number of new facilities added, Tesla added 1,287 fast-charging stations in the third quarter, and also added another 124 stations through the Supercharger for Business projects, continuing to lead among all operators.
Apart from Tesla, the North American electric vehicle fast charging network joint venture IONNA ranks second with 378 new chargers added, while Walmart ranks third with 344 new chargers. The scale of new additions by IONNA more than doubled compared to the second quarter, including 44 new sites that were acquired and replaced after taking over the original Circle K charging facilities. Paren counts some sites where equipment was replaced after taking over the operators as new infrastructure.
The scale of new charging stations is also expanding. In the third quarter, non-Tesla charging stations were equipped with an average of 5 charging ports per station, up from 4.1 a year ago; the proportion of new stations with only one or two ports has dropped to less than one-third. Tesla's new stations are equipped with an average of 13.1 ports, and during that quarter, 11 new stations were opened that had at least 24 charging spots, with one station in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, having as many as 48 charging spots.
In terms of charging power, in the third quarter, among the new fast-charging ports added in the United States, those with a rated power of 250 kilowatts or more accounted for 73%, which is higher than the 60% from a year ago. In networks other than Tesla, ports with a rated power of 400 kilowatts or more made up 35% of the new additions, while this proportion was only 10% a year ago.
As the charging network expands, so does user usage. Paren statistics show that in the third quarter, the US public fast-charging network completed a total of 50.4 million charges, a year-on-year increase of 26%; among them, July alone saw 17.6 million charges, setting a monthly record. The average utilization rate of fast-charging ports nationwide was 15.9%, which is basically the same as 15.8% in the second quarter. The average utilization rate in the 30 major charging markets in the US reached 21.1%, while in other regions it was 11%; Los Angeles topped the major markets with a utilization rate of 31.8%.
The overall charging reliability remains stable. The national reliability index for Paren is 93.9, which takes into account successful charges, retry attempts, failed attempts, and device downtime, and is not equivalent to the device online rate. Among the 52 states and regions evaluated, 50 scored 90 points or above, which is an increase from 46 a year ago; Oklahoma and Vermont have not yet reached this level.
In terms of prices, the national average cost of public fast charging in the United States rose to 0.54 US dollars per kilowatt-hour in the third quarter, which is approximately 3.6 yuan per kilowatt-hour, representing a year-on-year increase of 2.7%. Paren attributes this rise mainly to Tesla's adjustment of charging station prices: the average price for non-members increased by 15% year-on-year to 0.569 US dollars per kilowatt-hour, or about 3.8 yuan per kilowatt-hour; the price for members increased by 9% year-on-year to 0.396 US dollars per kilowatt-hour, or about 2.7 yuan per kilowatt-hour. Meanwhile, the average price of charging networks other than Tesla has remained at around 0.533 US dollars per kilowatt-hour for the fifth consecutive quarter.
At charging stations that adopt time-of-use pricing, the price differences are even more pronounced. During the peak hours of the third quarter, the average price reached 0.637 US dollars per kilowatt-hour, while during off-peak hours it was 0.438 US dollars, with a difference of nearly 0.20 US dollars between the two. For electric vehicle owners who frequently use public fast chargers, both the charging time and membership status can affect their actual expenses.
In the third quarter, approximately 90% of the newly added charging stations in the United States were located in urban areas; among the 664 new stations, only 68 were in rural regions. Although the number of large charging stations and high-power devices is increasing, the distribution of construction between urban and rural areas remains uneven, and the coverage of public fast charging in remote areas still needs to be improved.
