Nassau, Suffolk households in top 10% nationwide for electric vehicle ownership, new census data shows

In Nassau County, the share of households with electric vehicles is among the largest in the nation, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

About 9.4% of the county’s 462,776 houses have either a fully electric or plug-in hybrid vehicle, according to the 2025 American Community Survey's 1-year estimates.

Nassau’s figures place it in the top 6% of all U.S. counties or county-level administrative divisions that have a population of 65,000 or higher, according to the researchers and a Newsday analysis of the estimates. Suffolk was in the top 10%, with about 7.7% of its 512,340 households having at least one.

"We know we have some great characteristics on Long Island that just make EVs make so much sense," said Rosemary Mascali, chair of the education and outreach committee for Drive Electric Long Island.

Long Island environmentalists and electric vehicle enthusiasts point out the region has mostly single-family homes, making charging logistics easier than in denser areas of the state.

Many Long Islanders work 40 to 50 miles from home, well within the range of most electric vehicles, they said. And the region has a high median income, which allows buyers to afford an electric vehicle. In September, the average price of a new electric vehicle was about $55,900, according to the Kelley Blue Book Report.

"Most of the trips that people make are short, including to get to work. Many people in Nassau, if they don't work in Nassau, take a train," said Jane Fasullo, chair of the Long Island Group of the Sierra Club.

"So I think it's the perfect situation," she said, "the perfect place for it."

The U.S. Census Bureau released the electric vehicle data on Thursday as part of its American Community Survey, which provides information on more than 40 topics, including the availability of telephone services as well as internet and solar use. 

Long Island also had a considerable share of residences with solar panels, data showed. In Nassau, it was about 9%, and roughly 10% in Suffolk.

California residents have the greatest share of electric vehicles: about 14% of its households have at least one, government researchers said. In California’s Santa Clara County, roughly one-quarter of its households have an electric vehicle. Washington and Nevada also have a high share.

"Western states have led the way in switching to electric vehicles," Tricia Holley, a survey statistician with the U.S. Census Bureau, said in a statement.

More LI registrations

But last year, Long Island seemed to make a dent of its own. The region clocked more than 87,300 electric vehicle registrations by the end of  last year, marking a 23% increase from 2024 and making it the region with the highest share of the vehicles, according to Drive Electric Long Island, an interest group based in Melville. As of early June, Huntington Station, Syosset and Huntington were among the Long Island communities with the most electric vehicle registrations, with each having more than 2,000 vehicles on the road.

But shifting government regulations related to green energy could signal changing headwinds for the electric vehicle market, Newsday previously reported. Last year, a federal tax credit of $7,500 for new electric vehicles was discontinued, possibly slowing the market on Long Island. Long Island saw roughly new  25,000 electric vehicle registrations by December 2025, Drive Electric Long Island said, citing state figures. But as of September, the number was about 11,000.

"We are seeing a slowdown compared to say the growth from 2023, 2024 into 2025, because we had a pull ahead of demand to try to take advantage of the federal tax credits," Mascali told Newsday on Thursday.

Long Island's electric vehicle market also may be constrained by its lack of charging infrastructure, Fasullo said.

 "In some locations, the ports are being used by other cars. In some locations, people hate the electric vehicle so much that they will park their car in the electric vehicle charge station, even though they're a gas-driven car. And in many places, you might have say, five charge facilities there, but three of them are out of commission," she said.  

Despite the challenges, Fasullo believes "it's just going to take time" until more people drive electric vehicles.

Newsday's Mark Harrington contributed to this story.