US EV Charging Station & Fleet Network Intelligence

Get normalized US electric vehicle charging station records from the official US Department of Energy Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC), delivered as an Apify Dataset for JSON/CSV export, Clay enrichment and n8n workflows.

Access requirement: an NLR Developer Network API key is required. Enter your own free key in the encrypted apiKey input, or configure a secret NLR_API_KEY environment variable for a private deployment. Get a key at https://developer.nlr.gov/signup/. The default example explicitly uses the official DEMO_KEY for initial exploration only. It has a shared, low quota and is unsuitable for reliable scheduled production; replace it with your own key. There is no managed production NLR key included in the price. A supplied key that fails is never silently replaced. Keys are sent in the X-Api-Key header and are not logged.

Price: $0.005 per successful unique station returned ($5 per 1,000 stations). A station with 1 port or 50 ports is one result at the same price. No start event, port event or additional standard-run platform usage charge. Zero returned records incur no station events. Each new run is a new query and may charge for stations returned by an earlier run; deduplication applies within a run, including its restarted Dataset.

What you can do

• Compare charging networks and facility categories across US states.
• Build station inventories with separate Level 1, Level 2 and DC Fast port counts.
• Examine fleet-only and private station records by explicitly selecting private access.
• Keep planned and temporarily unavailable records distinct from available stations.
• Feed a stable station-ID table into Clay, n8n, spreadsheets or your own database.

AFDC includes multiple facility types, not an exclusively commercial fleet inventory. Facility type, owner code or network alone does not prove fleet use or a sales opportunity. Public stations can still have restricted access, pay lots or operating-hour limitations. Consult access_detail_code, access_days_time and restricted_access. AFDC Available (E) is a directory status, not live charger occupancy, operational telemetry or a guarantee of availability.

Quick start

Run this explicit demo example, then replace apiKey with your own NLR key for recurring work:

{
  "state": "CO",
  "chargingLevel": "LEVEL_2",
  "facilityType": "ALL",
  "network": "",
  "accessType": "public",
  "stationStatus": "E",
  "maxResults": 20,
  "maxCostUsd": 0.10,
  "apiKey": "DEMO_KEY"
}

The quick-start example requests 20 Colorado stations and caps station events at $0.10. The Store prefilled example uses the public DEMO_KEY with one Colorado Level 2 station and a $0.005 event cap, so Apify can run a small quality check; this shared demonstration key may be throttled and is not reliable for production. After the run, choose the Dataset JSON/CSV output or open the Run summary. A zero-result query succeeds without inventing a record.

Inputs

Input	Meaning
state	One US postal code, e.g. CO or CA. Empty allows a nationwide query of up to 200 records.
chargingLevel	ALL, LEVEL_1, LEVEL_2 or DC_FAST. Requires a positive reported count for that level.
facilityType	ALL or an exact official code from the dropdown, e.g. HOTEL, PARKING_LOT, FLEET_GARAGE or WORKPLACE.
network	Empty for all, or one exact official code, e.g. Tesla, ChargePoint Network, Non-Networked. Network codes are case-sensitive.
accessType	public (default), private or all.
stationStatus	E (Available, default), P (Planned), T (Temporarily Unavailable) or all.
maxResults	1–10,000 unique stations. For more than 200, specify one state.
maxCostUsd	Additional station-event spending limit, 0–50 USD, default 1 USD. The Apify run spending limit also applies.
apiKey	Secret NLR API key, or explicitly DEMO_KEY for limited exploration. Alternative: secret NLR_API_KEY environment variable.

The upstream API supports a numeric limit up to 200 or all, without documented offset pagination. For >200 this Actor requests the chosen state's matching records with limit=all, then applies its output and spending limits. The download is capped at 64 MiB. Narrow your filters if that bound is reached. maxResults limits output, not upstream bytes. There is no guarantee of source ordering or exhaustive retrieval when the requested output cap is lower than the matching station count.

Output and field definitions

One row represents one official station id. Port counts never create additional rows or events. Missing fields remain null; JSON preserves null and CSV exports empty cells.

Output	Official source / interpretation
station_id	id, station identifier; not a port or charger-unit ID.
station_name, street_address, station_phone	Direct AFDC station fields. No invented contacts.
city_state_zip	Readable composition of source city, state and ZIP; individual fields are also retained.
ev_network	Official network code; not an inferred parent company.
ev_dc_fast_num	Number of DC Fast EVSE ports at the station.
ev_level2_num	Source ev_level2_evse_num, number of Level 2 EVSE ports.
ev_level1_num	Source ev_level1_evse_num, number of Level 1 EVSE ports.
facility_type	Source facility category or null.
open_date	Date station began offering the fuel. May be approximate; network feeds may use first appearance in AFDC. Not a verified construction, opening-event or sales-opportunity date.
owner_type_code	FG=federal, J=joint, LG=local government, P=private, SG=state government, T=utility; null when unreported.
access_code, status_code	Source public/private access and E/P/T directory status.
date_last_confirmed	Source date station details were last confirmed.
source_updated_at	Source updated_at; distinct from last confirmation and retrieval time.
source_url	Official AFDC locator link for the station.
fetched_at	UTC retrieval timestamp generated by this Actor.
access_detail_code, access_days_time, restricted_access, expected_date	Additional source access restrictions and expected open/reopen context, preserved without reinterpretation.

Clay, n8n and API use

Start the Actor using Apify's API or the n8n Apify integration, wait for SUCCEEDED, then read the run's defaultDatasetId. Use station_id as your merge key. Never merge solely on station name or address.

• JSON: https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/DATASET_ID/items?format=json&clean=true
• CSV: https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/DATASET_ID/items?format=csv&clean=true

Authenticate using your Apify token in an Authorization Bearer header. Keep the NLR key in a secret field; it is a separate credential from your Apify token. Dataset exports contain station data, not input credentials.

Reliability and cost controls

Direct HTTPS/JSON only: no Playwright, login scraping, hidden endpoints or proxies. Requests use a 25-second socket timeout, at most three attempts for 429/5xx/network failures, and exponential backoff. Calls are sequential. AFDC is called once per normal run, with bounded retries. Source download stops at its time/size bounds; processing stops within 220 seconds. Configure a 240-second Actor timeout. Authentication failures fail clearly without printing keys or response bodies.

The source's published quota is normally 1,000 requests/hour per key; DEMO_KEY has much lower IP-based limits and live server limits may be lower. Concurrent runs share key/IP quotas. Reuse your own key responsibly. Set maxResults, maxCostUsd and Apify's maximum run charge. The SDK saves accessible results before charging and stops at the platform event limit.

Source, terms and attribution

Data source: US Department of Energy, Alternative Fuels Data Center; API operated by the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR).

• API and field definitions: https://developer.nlr.gov/docs/transportation/alt-fuel-stations-v1/all/
• API key documentation: https://developer.nlr.gov/docs/api-key/
• Rate limits: https://developer.nlr.gov/docs/rate-limits/
• Source terms: https://developer.nlr.gov/terms/
• Official download alternative: https://afdc.energy.gov/data_download
• Domain migration: https://developer.nlr.gov/docs/nlr-domain-transition/

The old developer.nrel.gov domain was retired on May 29, 2026 and does not redirect. This Actor uses developer.nlr.gov; existing NREL-issued keys continue to work according to the official migration notice.

Official terms permit use for any purpose, disclaim warranties and prohibit using DOE/NLR/Alliance names to imply endorsement. This independently developed Actor charges for querying, normalization and delivery of publicly available data. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by DOE, NLR or Alliance. The official download form is an alternative, but requests contact information and acceptance of terms; it is not an anonymous key-free API fallback. Source data is supplied as-is and may be stale or incomplete. Verify operational decisions with the station/network.

Validation

Release 1.0.0 was tested against genuine official Level 2, DC Fast, private-access, planned and temporarily unavailable records. Local tests cover null preservation, station/port distinction, filters, deduplication, input validation, Decimal cost bounds, transient HTTP retries and sanitized authentication errors. Live cloud run evidence is maintained with the project release report. Test fixtures are not presented as live runs.