Portfolio Project: Washington State EV Market Overview

Situation

Washington State is a leader in electric vehicle (EV) adoption in the United States. State agencies, utility companies, and automotive manufacturers require a clear understanding of the composition, growth, and geographic distribution of the EV population to make informed decisions regarding infrastructure planning, policy effectiveness, and market strategy. The raw vehicle registration data, while comprehensive, contains various data types and missing values that must be addressed to perform a meaningful analysis.

This project’s objective was to execute a full data analysis workflow: ingesting and cleaning the source data, performing an exploratory data analysis (EDA) to uncover key trends, and building a suite of interactive dashboards to present these insights to stakeholders.

Process

The project followed a robust data preparation and visualization workflow using Python for data analysis and Looker Studio for dashboarding.

  1. Data Ingestion & Cleaning (Python/Pandas):
    • The primary dataset, Electric_Vehicle_Population_Data.csv, was ingested into a Python environment using the Pandas library. All columns were initially read as strings to prevent data type inference errors and provide full control over data conversion.
    • A robust cleaning script was developed to:
      • Convert all relevant columns to their proper numeric (int64, float64) and categorical (category) data types for analytical accuracy and memory efficiency.
      • Handle missing values by strategically dropping a small number of rows with nulls in critical fields like County and Electric Range.
  2. Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) (Python/Pandas):
    • A step-by-step exploratory analysis was conducted in a Jupyter Notebook to answer key questions:
      • Growth Trend: A bar chart of registrations by Model Year revealed an exponential growth trend in EV adoption, particularly from 2021 onwards.
      • Fleet Composition: A stacked bar chart showed that while Plug-in Hybrids (PHEVs) had a presence in the early market, Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) have overwhelmingly dominated recent growth.
      • Market Leaders: Bar charts for top manufacturers and models identified a high market concentration, with a few key players like Tesla leading significantly. The visualization was refined to focus on the most impactful models (e.g., those with > 5,000 registrations) to improve clarity.
      • Geographic Distribution: A table and bar chart of the top 15 counties by registrations identified King County as the clear epicenter of EV adoption in the state.
      • Technical Analysis: A scatter plot analyzing Electric Range vs. Vehicle Count revealed that consumer adoption is concentrated in distinct clusters corresponding to the specific range offerings of popular models.
  3. Data Export:
    • After the EDA and cleaning process, the final, validated DataFrame was exported to a single, clean CSV file (ev_population_data_clean.csv). This materialized dataset serves as a stable and efficient data source for the visualization phase.
  4. Visualization & Dashboarding (Looker Studio):
    • The clean CSV was connected to Looker Studio and the data schema (data types for each field) was verified and corrected. A two-page interactive dashboard was built to tell a comprehensive data story:
    • Dashboard 1 (Market Overview): Displays KPIs for total registrations, makes, and models. Visualizes the overall growth trend and the changing BEV vs. PHEV market composition over time. Includes charts of top manufacturers and models.
    • Dashboard 2 (Geographic & Technical Analysis): Features a treemap of EV distribution by county, an interactive bar chart of top cities, and the scatter plot analyzing vehicle range vs. popularity. Interactive filters for County, Make, and Model Year allow for deep-dive exploration.

Result

This analysis transformed a raw, complex dataset into a clean, structured data source and a suite of interactive dashboards. The final report provides clear, data-driven insights into the Washington State EV market. Key findings include the exponential growth in recent years, the market’s decisive shift towards BEVs, the high market concentration among a few manufacturers, and the dense geographic clustering of EVs in the Puget Sound region. This tool can effectively be used by policymakers for infrastructure planning or by businesses for market analysis.

Interactive Dashboards

➡️ Open Full Report in Looker Studio

Dashboard 1: EV Market Overview

This dashboard provides a high-level summary of the Washington State EV market, focusing on growth, composition, and key manufacturers/models.

Dashboard 2: Geographic & Technical Analysis

This dashboard explores the geographic distribution of EVs across Washington State and analyzes the technical characteristics of the fleet. Click on a county and see the data update automaticaly

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