Adults who use a standing desk

From 2010 to 2022, US public EV charging stations grew from a few hundred to over 140,000, while the percentage of American adults using a standing desk grew from negligible to around 35%, and the two moved together at r = 0.967. The unified theory here is that the same class of person — environmentally conscious, professionally employed, concerned about their back, and enthusiastic about telling people about both of these facts — drove both markets simultaneously. The standing desk and the EV charger are spiritual siblings, both promising that virtue is compatible with comfort if you are willing to pay a premium and stand in a parking garage for 45 minutes.

Both EV charging infrastructure and standing desk adoption grew during 2010-2022 through the same mechanism: a wellness-and-sustainability consumer movement concentrated in affluent, educated, urban and suburban demographics with disposable income and professional desk jobs. Federal investment in EV infrastructure through programs like the Alternative Fuel Corridors, combined with Tesla's Supercharger network expansion and state-level incentives, drove charging station growth from under 1,000 in 2010 to over 140,000 by 2022. Standing desk adoption grew from a Silicon Valley trend to mainstream office and home-office furniture as ergonomic awareness spread, particularly during the 2020 remote work transition. Both curves are proxies for the same socioeconomic demographic's spending patterns.

When two products are marketed to the same professional demographic with disposable income and values-driven purchasing behavior, their adoption curves will correlate even without any direct connection. The data is describing a consumer identity — the kind of person who buys both — not a causal relationship between parking lots and lumbar support.