US DC fast charging (DCFC) infrastructure growth is on track to surpass previous yearly highs in 2025, despite government pushback.
EV charging data and analytics company Paren has released its State of the Industry Report: U.S. EV Fast Charging - Q2 2025, which reveals a trend toward larger stations with more ports and high-power chargers, as well as improved reliability and more predictable pricing — all of which is good news for EV drivers.
The report also includes the first in a series of forecasts: predicting a 19% increase in year-over-year port deployment across the U.S. in 2025, as many new charge point operators (CPOs) execute their growth plans.
Paren says Q2 2025 saw the continuation of several positive trends in the US DCFC industry that are leading to a more predictable and better customer experience for EV drivers. However, there are some warning signs for CPOs, charging networks, and retailers that could portend challenges ahead on the financial side of the equation.
On the positive side, deployment of new fast charging ports and stations is on a record pace in 2025, and Paren is forecasting 16,700 ports will open in 2025 — which would be 2.4 times as many ports opened three years earlier in 2022. At the current rate of growth, the number of US fast charging ports will surpass 100,000 in 2027, nearly four times the number in 2022 and about double the number in 2024.
CPOs are not just deploying more ports and stations, but higher-power chargers and much larger stations that combined provide a better experience for drivers and minimize wait times and frustration. Though the federal National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program set a minimum requirement of four, 150 kW chargers, the large “Charging 2.0” players are “standardizing” around 10, 350 kW/400 kW chargers helping the overall port to charger ratio rise to an average of 5.4 ports per station in Q2 versus 4.7 in Q1. In Q2 2025, we saw a clear pivot toward higher-capacity infrastructure with total share of 250+ kW chargers rising sharply to 38% from 24% for non-Tesla.
“2025 is going to be a record year for deployment of DC fast charging ports — and 2024 was already the highest year on record,” said Loren McDonald, chief analyst at Paren. “Charging 2.0 players are deploying new — and larger — stations at a breakneck pace.”
Key findings in the report include:
• Major CPOs are opening new or expanding existing stations to include 8, 10, 12, or more ports as the fast-charging market rapidly consolidates around high-output hardware that supports speed, scalability, and future demand.
• The national average utilization rate declined to 16.1% from 16.6% in Q1 due, in part, to seasonality and warmer weather. In a potential warning sign for the industry, however, we observed declining utilization rates across some unexpected markets — suggesting that new charger deployments may be beginning to outpace demand, particularly in regions with lower EV adoption.
• Paren’s U.S. Reliability Index measured a year-over-year improvement of 5.3% as new stations are deployed and many older ones are retired or replaced.
• The national average price per kWh declined to $0.48 in Q2, down from $0.50 in Q1. This decrease was partly driven by the continued shift to time-of-use (TOU) pricing — with 366 stations nationwide transitioning from fixed to TOU pricing, one-third of which were in California.
• Charging providers continued to test pricing strategies and elasticity: 29% of stations with either fixed or TOU pricing adjusted their rates in Q2, either up or down. Notably, despite the overall national decline, California saw an average price increase of 3 cents among stations that changed their pricing since last quarter.
The report concludes that the shift into “Charging 2.0” continues at an accelerated pace as CPOs focus on improving the EV driver experience with increased access and reliability. This suggests a high level of confidence that demand for DC fast-charging will continue to increase even as policy-driven incentives are rolled back.
