Washington pushes ahead with electric vehicle adoption as feds scale back efforts
Gov. Jay Inslee aimed to have 50,000 electric vehicles in Washington by 2020. The state exceeded that goal, with 53,307 registered at the end of 2019.
Washington electric vehicle ownership has more than tripled since 2015, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation’s (WSDOT) most recent quarterly performance analysis.
This new data was published last week, a day after Inslee signed Senate Bill 5811, which adopts California’s clean car standards. One of those standards is to have 8 percent of new vehicle sales in the state be zero-emission and plug-in hybrids by 2025. The move puts pressure on car makers to produce and sell more eco-friendly vehicles.
At the same time, President Donald Trump’s administration lessened fossil fuel emission limits Tuesday, softening policies former President Barack Obama put in place to encourage automakers to increase production of electric and fuel-efficient cars, NBC News reported. The new rule would mandate automakers improve fuel efficiency in new cars by 1.5 percent each year, down from 5 percent.
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