Minnesota has seen rapid growth in electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, from just 5 stations and 12 charging ports in 2011 to more than 1,000 stations and nearly 3,000 ports in 2025 — growth that aligns with major investments from federal, state, and local funding initiatives.
A new University of Minnesota report, drawing on data from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC), maps how this infrastructure has taken shape across Minnesota. The report is the result of research conducted through the Transportation Policy and Economic Competitiveness program (TPEC).
“Since there wasn’t a single report that had information about EV charging station locations in Minnesota, we decided to compile information about how many there are and where they are located,” says CTS scholar Camila Fonseca-Sarmiento, director of fiscal research at the Humphrey School’s Institute for Urban and Regional Infrastructure Finance and lead project investigator. The report could benefit future EV owners and policymakers, she says, by showing existing gaps in EV station locations to help inform decision-making for funding new stations.
For this work, the research team filtered AFDC records by state (Minnesota), fuel type (electric), and station access (public or private). The dataset reflects information captured in January 2026 and includes stations opened as of December 31, 2025. The team mapped charging station locations at three levels: statewide, by Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) district, and by county.
The project’s final report also describes a variety of federal, state, and local programs that have supported the expansion of EV charging infrastructure in the state. The timelines of these programs align closely with station installation across Minnesota, particularly during the 2020s, Fonseca-Sarmiento explains. For example, the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation, is one of the primary ways public-access charging stations have been financed in the state. Minnesota is also receiving funding for EV infrastructure from a settlement against Volkswagen, which violated the federal Clean Air Act by selling vehicles that emitted air pollution over the legal limits. Tribal nations are supporting projects as well: the Red Lake, Leech Lake, and White Earth Nations have installed charging stations in their communities.
Most of the state’s EV stations are concentrated in urban and populated areas, Fonseca-Sarmiento notes. The Twin Cities metropolitan area, which for this study included the seven-county metro area plus Chisago County, contains 668 stations, or 61 percent of all stations in Minnesota. Outside the Twin Cities, the Duluth metropolitan area has 39 stations (about 4 percent), and the Rochester metropolitan area has 73 stations (nearly 7 percent).
The Mankato and St. Cloud metropolitan areas have 28 and 16 stations, respectively. The La Crosse/Onalaska, Fargo-Moorhead, and Grand Forks areas each have 5 or fewer stations. Seventeen counties — most of which are in rural western Minnesota — have no stations, and 42 counties have between one and six stations.
MnDOT’s Metro District (District 5) has the most charging stations, with 61 percent of the statewide total. District 6, in southeastern Minnesota, has the second-highest share at 13 percent, followed by District 3, which includes Duluth, at nearly 7 percent.
Charging stations are unevenly distributed across counties. In 2025, Minnesota counties averaged 12.6 charging stations each, with totals ranging from 0 to 339. Hennepin (with 339 stations), Ramsey (176), Dakota (70), Olmsted (59), and St. Louis (34) counties have the most stations and the highest station density per square mile.
Fonseca-Sarmiento says future research should examine how easy it is for people to use Minnesota’s EV charging infrastructure — for example, whether drivers must pay, sign up, or use special credentials to plug in and how reliable stations are, such as how often they are out of service. Understanding these factors would give a fuller picture of how well the current system works and how it supports EV adoption.
TPEC is a program of the Institute for Urban and Regional Infrastructure Finance at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and CTS. It was established by the Minnesota Legislature to conduct research on transportation finance, industry clusters and freight infrastructure, and new and emerging technologies.
— Peter Raeker, contributing writer
