Ironically, sale of EVs has faltered in 2026 even as drivers now are within 30 miles of fast-charger on 83% of federal and state highways
by Allen Best
Colorado has nearly 500 fast-charging EV stations compared to 2,350 gas and diesel stations.
EV drivers will not find an EV fast charger on every street. However, state officials say Colorado is fast approaching the time where EV drivers can travel between the state’s four corners — not just along the Front Range and major interstates — and be confident of being relatively close to a fast-charging station. This, say state officials, represents a milestone.
“Public investment has helped make it possible to establish charging in locations that are essential to a truly statewide network but can be more difficult for the private market to serve on its own,” said Shoshana Lew, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Transportation, in a press release.
Gaps have been fast receding since 2020. Today, 83% of Colorado’s state highway network is within 30 miles of a DC fast-charging station, more than double the 40% six years ago.
Now, a new round of state funding is focused on providing drivers confidence they will be no more than 30 miles from a fast-charging station on federal highways.
To see the progression of fast-chargers since 2010 in Colorado, go to this website.
Decline in sales
Ironically, the boom in sale of new EVs has slackened. New battery-electric vehicle registrations declined 55% this year through June compared to the same period in 2025, according to the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association’s 2026 second quarter report.
Colorado in the final months of 2024 led the nation in the percentage of sales adoption rate for EVs and plug-in hybrids. At one point, about a third of new car sales in Colorado were battery-electric, plug-in hybrids or hybrids. In 2025, sale of electric-only vehicles began slowing in favor of plug-in hybrids.
This most recent decline can be explained in part by the end of generous state and federal tax-based discounts to buyers. Tax credits of up to $6,000 offered by Colorado in 2025 dropped to $750 in January. The federal tax credit of $6,000 ended in September 2025.
Also relevant is that car sales altogether have slowed 15% in Colorado. This decline in EV sales is part of that broader decline.
Travis Madsen expects EV sales to recover.
“The investment Colorado is making recognizes that the future of road transportation will be electric,” said Madsen, the director of transportation programs for the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, an environmental advocacy organization. “These investments are smart. Coloradans will save a ton of money, because it’s cheaper to drive an EV than an internal combustion engine vehicle.”
Madsen also expects improving incentives will be part of the discussion when Colorado legislators gather again in January for the 2027 session. Too, he suspects that a shift in the political makeup of Congress and perhaps the presidency in 2028 may result in restored federal tax incentives.
In addition, Madsen suspects the introduction of new models of bare-bones pickup trucks will spur sales. One new pickup, called Slate, comes in at $25,000 and will have a range of 205 miles. Ford’s Fathom will sell for a bit less than $30,000. Ford says the Fathom will have a range of 300 miles, but some auto writers seem skeptical. EV Charging Stations, for example, said an optional higher-capacity battery may be necessary to get this range.
Colorado currently has 217,000 registered EVS and plug-in hybrids among its 5.54 million cars, pickups and vans, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. The state has a 2030 goal of 940,000 and a 2035 goal of 2.1 million.
A lot of federal help
Federal funding of $56.5 million administered through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure, or NEVI, program, has bolstered Colorado’s efforts to create its EV fast-charging network. So far, 17 of the fast-charging locations supported by the federal program have opened, but another 33 are under development.
Several of the EV fast-charging gaps on the lesser traveled highways of Colorado’s lightly populated eastern plains have been narrowed in the last year with the help of this federal program. For example, somebody driving southeast from Limon on Highway 287 toward Lamar or east on Highway 24 to Kansas would have had no way to charge an electric vehicle until fast-charging stations were added in 2025 at both Eads and Kit Carson. Wray also gained a station.
Walden, seen here during Christmas 2020, is in line to get an EV fast-charger. Photo/Allen Best
Another gap was filled in southwestern Colorado for drivers traveling the 80 miles from Durango to the Four Corners Monument. That station is at Cortez.
Other stations installed with help of the federal program are operating in Frisco, Longmont, Monument, Seibert, Grand Junction, Limon, Montrose, Maybell, Sterling, Durango, Lyons, Pagosa Springs and Walsenburg.
Now CDOT and the Colorado Energy Office are evaluating applications from the ninth round of the DCFC Plazas Grant Program. The state expects to have $14 million available. In this funding round, the state introduced a “gap incentive” of $174,000 per charging port aimed at attracting projects to high-priority communities and segments with persistent charging gaps:
- Bennett/Strasburg,
- Cheyenne Wells,
- Fraser/Winter Park,
- Gunnison,
- Holly,
- Ignacio / Southern Ute Reservation,
- Julesburg,
- Saguache,
- Walden,
- Wellington.
State officials did not provide information about how much state money has been used to expand this fast-charging network. Also unclear is how the fast-charging stations installed by Tesla figure into this statewide matrix of fast-chargers. Nearly every major EV brand now has access to Tesla’s supercharging network.
Achieving scale
The goal all along in this effort to electrify transportation has been to achieve scale.
A website at the Colorado Department of Transportation shows the slow and then accelerating spread. First the stations were entirely along the Front Range. The first fast-charger in a rural area was installed in 2017, at a location in the San Luis Valley, followed by more along the interstate highways and then secondary highways. The expansion has been particularly rapid since 2020.
“Colorado has reached the point where we are no longer simply building the foundation of an EV fast-charging network — we are filling in the remaining gaps and making that network increasingly useful for travel throughout the state,” said CDOT’s Lew.
“Widespread EV adoption in Colorado would not be possible without convenient access to charging all across the state, from the Eastern Plains to the Western Slope and everything in between,” said Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office.
Sifting through the numbers, though, the International Council on Clean Transportation in April released a report that paints a slightly less rosy picture of Colorado’s fast-charging infrastructure. “Meeting Colorado’s EV goals will require significant continued investment in charging infrastructure,” the council said.
The council said existing state and federal grants and utility investments, if made, could cover about 84% of non-home DC fast-charger needs through 2035.
And there is also this. Charging stations still take more time and are somewhat less assured, especially when traveling beyond Colorado’s borders. Consider the story of Florence resident Steve Andrews, an EV driver (Bolt) for many years.
In driving to Wisconsin this year, he will use an internal-combustion engine. Driving his Bolt, with its range of 250 to 300 miles, he says, would take close to a day longer.
Just how the charging infrastructure will evolve is anybody’s guess. It currently takes maybe 30 minutes to juice up a depleted battery, compared to 5 minutes to gas up a car or 10 or more minutes to fill the 36-gallon tank of a hulking pickup like a Ford 250 or 350.
In both cases the fast-chargers and the gas dispensers are located adjacent to shopping convenience stores. Operators make their money selling potato chips and soft drinks while also offering rest rooms.
Madsen said high-speed charging technology may evolve in uncertain ways. China already has very-fast-charging that can fill a depleted battery in 9 minutes, but that technology is not yet available in the United States.
“The way it works right now is you need to stop for 15 to 20 minutes, 30 minutes if you get a really big charge. It therefore makes sense to put these (charging stations) at places where drivers can spend time taking care of their other needs.”
U.S. 160 between Trinidad and Springfield in southeastern Colorado carries little traffic, even on a Fourth of July weekend. Photo/AllenBest
Highways with few travelers
Colorado — luckily — still has places where you need to think ahead no matter what kind of car you are driving. Consider U.S. 160, which connects Trinidad and Springfield, in the state’s southeastern quadrant. The landscape is delightfully sparse. You can drive 20 minutes or more, even on a holiday weekend, without encountering another vehicle. It’s you and the cows and likely pronghorn, too.
That 122-mile stretch of highway currently has one place to buy gasoline or diesel. It has no place to charge your EV, whether slowly or fast. It’s not among the “gaps” identified in state transportation planning. Probably, it will stay that way for a while.
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