Climate Protection: Washington electric vehicle ownership up 21%

Washington electric vehicle ownership is up 21% year-over-year, according to data from the Washington State Department of Licensing. EVs are up 21% in spite of a worsening economy, a federal executive branch that has declared war on electric vehicles and on clean energy, and in spite of uncertainties about the future of America. Over the same year, gasoline vehicle ownership in Washington state dropped 2%.

In December 2024, Washington state residents owned 189,095 electric vehicles. Last month, 228,910 EVs were registered in Washington.

In December 2024, 6,553,522 gasoline and diesel cars and trucks were registered in Washington. By December 2025, that number was down to 6,441,375.

Owning a gasoline car is becoming less common, and owning an EV is becoming more common. EV counts went up 39,815, and gasoline vehicle counts went down by 112,147. Altogether, the total number of cars and trucks dropped by 72,332 (1%), in spite of the Washington population growing by 1%.

The drop in gasoline-vehicle ownership has not been steady. From December 2021 to April 2022, gas-vehicle ownership dropped as people adapted to COVID and then the post-COVID world. People don’t commute as much as they did before COVID. If your car gets to the end of its life, it’s not as essential to replace it. From April 2022 to July 2025, the number of gasoline cars held pretty steady, not keeping up with population growth.

Then in August 2025, gasoline-vehicle ownership fell off a cliff. Not down to zero by any means, but a dramatic change from how things had been going for the last three years. In July 2025, there were 6,584,991 gas vehicles registered in Washington. By August, we were down 71,295 gas vehicles (down 1.1% in one month). By November, we were down 143,217 gas vehicles (a drop of 2.2% in four months). You might wonder what happened last year. I think the answer to that is, “Well, what didn’t happen?”

Electric vehicle growth has been smoother, rising every month from December 2021 to December 2025. As with gasoline-vehicle ownership, EV growth slowed at the end of 2025. There was an average of 2.7% monthly growth from December 2021 to October 2025. In November, there was only 0.3% increase, and in December, there was a 0.9% increase. EV ownership growth was slowed, but never went negative, and certainly did not fall off a cliff the way gasoline vehicle ownership fell.

Locally, in Southwest Snohomish County (Edmonds, Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace), the trends of electric vehicles and gas vehicles are even more divergent. In December 2024, there were 3,176 EVs registered in Southwest Snohomish. By last month, that number had grown 697 vehicles (22%) to 3,873. In December 2024, there were 84,142 gasoline vehicles in Southwest Snohomish. By December 2025, that number had dropped by 2,554 vehicles (3%).

As in Washington overall, the local drop in gasoline vehicle ownership was not completely balanced by an increase in EVs. People in Southwest Snohomish are owning fewer cars and trucks. My suspicion is that some of it is due to families realizing they can take public transportation or a car-sharing service, and some of it is families who had multiple cars choosing to have fewer.

As with the overall Washington EV trend, the trend in EV ownership in Southwest Snohomish has continued rising steadily. Reaching 4.5% of local vehicles being EVs, compared to 3.4% statewide.

Local gasoline vehicle ownership showed the same changes as statewide, but were more pronounced: A 1.2% drop from July to August (compared to 1.1% statewide) and a 2.7% drop from July to November (compared to 2.2%).

Probably a lot of the improvement in Southwest Snohomish has to do with our being close to King County and Seattle. In the Rogers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma, they sang, “Everything’s up to date in Kansas City.” You could say something like that about Seattle, where 6.9% of the cars and trucks are electric. It’s not surprising that we in Southwest Snohomish, right above Seattle, are making this transition faster than folks in places like Adams County.

These are hard times. It will be wonderful to have a return of helpful management of the economy, safety for our citizens and enforcement of bribery laws. Eventually, whatever is being hidden by the Epstein file redactions will be exposed. In the meantime, we all juggle our usual responsibilities with our vigilance to protect our beloved country. Along the way, don’t neglect to take care of your family and friends, and take care of yourself. And if you own a car that needs more repairs than it’s worth, you have a choice. You don’t have to add to global warming. You can buy an electric car. Or buy no car at all.