U.S. DC Fast Charger Count More Than Doubles Since 2023

The number of DC fast chargers in the United States has more than doubled since July 2023, when the total stood at approximately 32,000, TechCrunch reported. Continued expansion by Tesla and other networks pushed the count past 64,000 by 2026, with most Tesla stations now open to non-Tesla vehicles more than a year after the company announced the change in 2023. Reliability has also risen.

Paren’s index, which tracks successful charging sessions and station downtime, moved from 85 percent in 2025 to the mid-90s this year. Tesla’s network remains the most reliable on the index, though other operators are adding chargers and repairing equipment faster than before. A summer 2026 road trip from the northeastern United States to Montreal illustrated the change.

The driver covered more than 600 miles in an Audi e-tron with roughly 220 miles of range per charge. Three DC fast-charging stops, each lasting about 20 minutes, required no waiting. The first stop at a Rivian site near Lebanon, New Hampshire, delivered more than 140 kilowatts across six operational 300-kilowatt units.

The only issue occurred at a Circuit Électrique station outside Montreal, where a card reader failed and the driver loaded 20 Canadian dollars into the app. The same driver had a markedly different experience on a 350-mile round trip to Maine in 2023.

That journey required three customer-service calls and multiple charger failures despite use of the A Better Route Planner app, now owned by Rivian.

A 2025 AAA survey found just over half of respondents still listed public charging infrastructure as a key concern when considering an electric-vehicle purchase. Gaps remain in the network and individual chargers still fail, yet monthly additions and quicker repairs have narrowed those problems, TechCrunch reported.