(The Center Square) — Electric and hybrid car sales are up in Colorado year-over-year from 2024.
So far this year, there were over 21,000 new electric vehicle registrations, compared to 15,000 this time in 2024. That is a more than 19% increase.
The Colorado Automobile Dealers Association released this report, which includes data from the first and second quarter of 2025. The association advocates on behalf of the automotive retail industry throughout the state, including its 260 member dealerships.
In an exclusive interview with The Center Square, association CEO Matthew Groves said his organization does not expect this trend to continue.
“The state generally focuses on our EV numbers,” Groves said. “With credits disappearing and shrinking, we expected a sharp downturn in these numbers.”
Already in quarter two of this year, electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids are trending down from a peak at the end of 2024.
“In the last two quarters we’ve dropped from 31.4% to 24.2%. That’s a significant drop, but probably only half of what we expected,” Groves said.
Hybrid vehicles bucked that trend, continuing to increase even in the second quarter of this year to 14% of industry registrations.
“I think the best news for air quality is that many of those ‘would-be-EV-buyers’ are not running back to combustion. They’re going to pure hybrids,” Groves explained. “In reality, these are the cleanest cars on the road in terms of emissions, even more so than EVs. They have never been financially incentivized, and they still comprise over 14% of the total market.”
This, combined with the Trump administration ending tax credits for electric vehicles, could signal to manufacturers it is time for a realignment in the industry to focus more on hybrids.
Some of that shift is already happening, with franchised dealers now selling 72% of all electric vehicles. That is an increase from 61% in 2024.
“What this shows is that, if you set aside Tesla, the direct-to-consumer model isn’t really viable anymore,” Groves said. “With all of the uncertainty around EVs (charging infrastructure, service, availability of parts), consumers want the security of knowing a dealer will be available to keep their car running.”
Denver Metro unsurprisingly had the most vehicle registrations of any district in the state, holding 20% of the market share for luxury brands, and 24% of the electric vehicle market share.
Long-term, the Colorado government hopes that light-duty electric vehicles will make up “nearly 100%” of the market share by 2050.
“The state envisions the large-scale transition of Colorado’s transportation system to zero emission vehicles,” said Colorado’s 2023 Electric Vehicle Plan.
This includes 940,000 electric vehicles on Colorado roads by 2030. While the state says the ability to meet that goal has “never been better,” the current rate of EV registrations makes meeting that goal look unrealistic.
