Pike Research says annual sales of plug-in vehicles in U.S. will hit 358,959 by 2017

Pike Research has put out an estimate saying that annual sales of plug-in vehicles in the United States will hit 358,959 by 2017. And they’re not all going to the usual suspects. Mostly, sure, but not all.

Since there is no national Level 2 (or faster) charging infrastructure the way there is a gasoline network, Pike compiled its data by geographic region and even broke down the numbers one city at a time. As Pike states:

As government officials and utility managers plan for the arrival of grid-connected vehicles, they need to understand where those vehicles are going to be located and what the impact could be.

Seems logical to us. So, where will all the plug-ins call home? Well, according to Pike, New York and California will lead the way at the state level. Looking at individual cities, Pike says New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Chicago will be the U.S.’ top five plug-in loving metropolitan areas. No big surprises there, but here’s a bit of a shocker: relative to population, Raleigh, NC will lead the nation in registered plug-ins by 2017.