Back in 2008, purchasing an electric car might have seemed risky. Battery life had a long way to go while the charging infrastructure was stretched very thin. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, there was only one electric vehicle model in production in the U.S. in early 2008 - the Tesla Roadster (even though it was preceded by other electric vehicles). Even then, only 27 vehicles were delivered to customers by September of that year. Also, there were only 430 chargers in existence across the country in 2008.

A decade on, things have improved drastically for prospective electric car buyers with 25 battery-electric vehicles on the market to choose from, along with 26 plug-in hybrids. Tesla Model X and S cars have become increasingly common on U.S. roads, as have a multitude of other electric cars such as the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf. The number of outlets has also grown as the technology has matured with 47,000 of them now scattered across the country, including 6,270 fast charging outlets.