(The Center Square) – Washington car manufacturers aren’t expected to necessarily meet their electric vehicle sales quotas for 2026, but state officials are still confident they can remain in compliance with state law thanks to a credit system.
Per the Advanced Clean Cars II program, Washington aims to have 35% of new light-duty vehicle sales be zero-emission vehicles by 2026. Last year, 20% of new sales were electric or plug-in hybrid.
By 2027, EV, or zero emission vehicles, will have to make up 43% of all car sales in Washington. That percentage increases to 51% in 2028 and eventually reaches 100% by 2035, when it will be illegal to register new internal combustion engine vehicles.
New data reveals that while July new title transactions for EVs were 4,380, up from the same time in 2023, they were significantly below that of July 2024 which had nearly 6,500 new title transactions. In both May and June, new title transactions were below those same months in 2023 and 2024.
Washington State Department of Commerce Electric Vehicle Council Analyst Santiago Beltran Laborde told the Electric Vehicle Coordinating Council at its Sept. 17 meeting that “August might even be an even better month of new EV sales.”
Nevertheless, an EVCC’s meeting presentation stated that while the state would be able to meet its 8% sales share for 2025, the “state will struggle to meet this (35% in 2026) mark absent a policy boost or change in market dynamics,” according to the presentation.
However, State Department of Commerce Clean Transportation Managing Director Steven Hershkowitz noted that the “struggle” to meet that goal is “an average across the whole market, but this is not saying that it would be a ‘struggle’ for compliance to be met in the actual Advanced Clean Cars II policy, because of the way credits can be traded in. I just want to make it abundantly clear for anyone who’s tuning in to not misinterpret this as suggesting that compliance cannot be met in ACC2, just the across-the-board average of 35% market share.”
Department of Ecology Zero Emissions Vehicle Specialist Joshua Grandbouche added that “we have the significant amount of credits in the credit bank … that manufacturers earned over the past few years of sales.”
Under Advance Clean Cars II, credits are generated based on the sale of vehicles that meet or exceed the program’s emissions standards. Those credits can either be sold to other manufacturers or used to offset sale deficits up to the next three years. Manufacturers that don’t meet the percentage goals are given up to three years to resolve it.
