(The Center Square) – The past year has seen a “tremendous amount of demand’ for electric vehicle charging port funding by state agencies, according to remarks made at a recent Electric Vehicle Coordinating Council meeting.
The increased demand incidentally coincides with a decline in EV sales in 2025 compared to 2024, though stakeholders remain optimistic about long-term prospects driven in part by used EV sales.
The EVCC is a 10-member task force collaborating on ways to increase electric vehicle adoption in the transportation sector, with a ban in 2035 on the registration or sale of new gasoline vehicles in the state. Among the many challenges the government-driven environmental goal has faced are high EV prices, a lack of charging ports, and charging port vandalism and theft that in some regions can cause significant disruption to EV use.
EV title transactions in the state reached a quarter of all transactions in October 2025, but fell to just 10.2% in December. EV sales peaked in September 2024 following the start of the state’s EV Instant Rebates Program in August. According to a draft 2025 report, “this matches evidence from Colorado that consumer incentives can drive short-term growth.”
Nevertheless, state agencies such as the state Department of Commerce has requested $148 million in funding for its EV Charging Program to build 766 L2 ports and 732 DCFC ports.
Commerce’s Clean Transportation Managing Director Steven Hershkowitz told the EVCC at its Jan. 28 meeting that there was a “tremendous amount of demand for funding that we saw in Commerce programs.”
A separate state agency requested $99.5 million to build 1,200 L2 ports and 270 DCFC ports. While Commerce’s funding request has not been awarded, $7.3 million was awarded for the state agency.
“I think a large number like this reflects that there’s a lot of work that state agencies want to do if they can get the funding to do it,” Hershkowitz said.
Meanwhile, though EV sales are below 2024 levels and not expected to meet sales quotas for this year, the number of Direct Current Fast Chargers has more than doubled since 2022. However, the several thousand currently operating are a small percentage of the 40,000-150,000 fast-charging ports needed to support 8 million vehicles, with an estimated cost of $30 billion.
Additionally, the state continues to grapple with ongoing theft and/or vandalism of EV charging ports, to the point where one out of five are inoperable at any given time.
Senate Bill 5746 sponsored by Sen. Jeff Wilson, R-Longview, would direct EVCC to address the issue through its Industry Electric Vehicle Advisory Committee or another ad hoc committee for a two-year period. The bill was introduced last session, but failed to clear the Legislature. This session it received a public hearing in the Senate Committee on Transportation and is scheduled for a Jan. 29 committee vote.
One way some EV advocates hope to increase adoption by drivers is allowing direct sales to consumers without a franchise agreement, something that be permitted under House Bill 2518 sponsored by Rep. Beth Doglio, D-Olympia, and cosponsored by several Republicans.
The bill has been referred to the Consumer Protection & Business Committee, but is not scheduled for a public hearing. The proposal has proven controversial among car dealerships, which have previously argued it would undercut their industry.
