Atlanta might be located in Georgia, a state that famously axed its tax credits for buying electric vehicles years ago, but the city nonetheless charts high on a new ranking of best places for drivers who want to ditch the gas pump.

With a federal push for electric transportation gaining momentum, analysts with StorageCafé crunched the numbers to determine which of the country's 100 most populous metros are best catered to an EV lifestyle.

Atlanta ranked an impressively high sixth, making it the only city in the Southeast to chart in the top 10—and the only one besides Washington, D.C. not on the West Coast.

StorageCafé, an online platform for storage unit listings, based scores from 1 to 100 for EV-friendly cities on 14 different metrics.

Those took into account the number of registered EVs in each state, the cost of charging cars, prevalence of carpooling and HOV lanes for EVs, local air quality, and the share of roads deemed to be in “poor condition.” (A small percentage of weight was also given to each city’s number of available self-storage units, where EVs are often kept when not in use.)

Atlanta, it turns out, triumphed as the third best-equipped metro in the land when it comes to EV infrastructure.

The city counts a relatively high (but still seemingly low) number of charging stations overall, with .5 for every 1,000 households, according to Alternative Fuels Data Center. The metro is dotted with more than 1,100 charging stations, good for sixth most in the country.

The cost of fueling EVs here, per se, boded well for Atlanta, at $0.9 for every “eGallon.”

Atlanta also has the 11th highest number of apartment units—almost 6 percent—that come fitted with EV charging stations. That’s almost double the national average.

Conversely, Atlanta's middle-of-the-road "environment" ranking of 47 did the metro no favors.  

Georgia's capital, at a crossroads between pandemic challenges and the promise of another Roaring Twenties. Skyline images via Shutterstock

Other interesting stats: More than 36,000 EVs are registered across metro Atlanta. That’s the tenth-highest concentration in the country, per the analysis.

And nearly 20 percent of public transportation vehicles in metro Atlanta currently run on clean fuel—with more big quiet buses on the way, thanks to a recent FTA grant.

• $5M grant to fund electric bus fleet connecting to Midtown, downtown (Urbanize Atlanta) 

• Best metros for electric cars (StorageCafe)