Plug-in vehicles are becoming a bigger part of Winchester's local car mix. They now make up 9.3% of the town's passenger-use, light-duty vehicles, roughly 1 in 11. That's nearly three times the statewide share.
Here's what to know
According to Winchester News, citing Massachusetts Department of Transportation Vehicle Census data, Winchester's July 1, 2026, snapshot showed 16,478 comparable passenger-use, light-duty vehicles, including 1,538 plug-ins: 1,111 battery-electric vehicles and 427 plug-in hybrids. Statewide, the same vehicle class included 163,274 plug-ins out of 4,900,751 vehicles, or 3.3%.
Of Winchester's total in that category, 6.7% were battery-electric vehicles, versus 2.2% statewide. Those plug-in totals exclude conventional hybrids, and Winchester had 1,746 non-plug-in hybrids in the same vehicle class.
Because the state's vehicle census is a single-day count of vehicles registered and kept in town, it does not measure sales. It also does not reveal charging frequency, electric miles traveled, or how many Winchester households own those vehicles.
More background
As of the January 1, 2020, snapshot, Winchester had 254 plug-ins among 16,142 comparable vehicles (163 battery-electric vehicles and 91 plug-in hybrids), a 1.6% share.
Compared with 2020, Winchester added 1,284 plug-in vehicles by July 2026, bringing the town to roughly 6.1 times its earlier plug-in count. Over that span, the plug-in share of Winchester's passenger fleet rose by 7.8 percentage points.
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Statewide growth was also rapid, rising from 25,609 plug-ins out of 4,673,041 vehicles in the January 1, 2020, snapshot to 163,274 in the July 1, 2026, count. That's roughly 6.4 times as many plug-ins across Massachusetts, though from a much lower starting share, and the statewide plug-in share rose 2.8 percentage points.
What's being done?
The town plans to start charging a fee to use the Laraway Road station, which was previously free.
It is also publicly listing the available charging ports, including two accessible only outside school hours.
Quarterly snapshots show growth wasn't steady: Winchester's plug-in count fell in four quarters, including July to October 2022, before rising again.
Since that 2022 decline, when the town's total dropped from 573 vehicles to 556, Winchester's plug-in count has increased in every quarterly snapshot.
Where can I learn more?
Winchester's high plug-in share and the town's limited public charging point to a bigger challenge in expanding EV infrastructure.
• In Massachusetts, $64 million for EV chargers produced planning work but no installations.
• Massachusetts officials launched a program that will pay EV owners to support the grid.
• The first $900M of IRA funding for chargers began expanding a national network.
• Texas is set to add more than 50 new charging stations along major highways.
• General Motors says rural America is about to get many more charging stations.
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