California No. 2 in the U.S. for electric vehicle friendliness

California ranked No. 2 behind Vermont in a ranking of the most EV-friendly states, according to a new study of the electric-vehicle charging infrastructure in the United States.

The iSeeCars study analyzed how many EV chargers are available per resident and broke the figures down to determine the top cities and states when it comes to EV infrastructure.

The new car electric-vehicle market grew from 2.7 percent to 6.4 percent in the past two years, iSeeCars noted, with the ability to charge the vehicles becoming increasingly important.

San Francisco/Oakland/ San Jose is the most electric vehicle-friendly metro area, with one charger for every 465 residents. The entire state of California has one charger for every 881 residents.

The Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto metro area has one electric vehicle charger for every 1,111 residents, 51.3% greater than the national average of one charger for every 2,280 residents.

Some of the other findings include:

• St. Louis, Missouri, is the least electric vehicle-friendly metro area, with one charger for every 5,787 residents.

• While Vermont is the most electric vehicle-friendly state overall with one charger for every 703 residents, Mississippi is the least with one charger for every 9,275 residents;

• The Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Florida, metro area ranked 15th overall with 1,691 residents per charger.

“Consumers looking to switch from gasoline to electric power should consider their local charging equipment options to understand how many potential electric vehicle owners they may be competing with, both today and in the near future,” Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars, said in a news release.