In the summer of 2024, I reported that the state of Connecticut opted to forgo adopting California-style electric vehicle (EV) mandates. Additionally, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin put the brakes on his state’s EV mandate at the end of the year.
Another state is now reconsidering its EV mandate. Maryland’s governor has delayed its attempt to be East Coast California.
The Maryland Freedom Caucus is claiming victory after Governor Wes Moore issued an executive order last week delaying implementation of California’s Advanced Clean Cars (CACC) 11 mandate by two years. The order comes in direct response to the Freedom Caucus’s January 16, 2025 letter calling for Maryland to fully withdraw from the program.“This is a major win for the people of Maryland,” said Delegate Matt Morgan, Chair of the Maryland Freedom Caucus. “We sounded the alarm early, and now Governor Moore is backing down. This delay is proof that the Freedom Caucus is delivering real results for working families and small businesses.”The CACC 11 mandate, modeled after California’s extreme environmental regulations, would have forced 43% of all new cars sold in Maryland by model year 2027 to be electric—despite EVs making up less than 10% of vehicles on Maryland roads and consumer demand continuing to drop. The Freedom Caucus’s letter warned that the mandate would cripple local auto dealerships, burden consumers with unaffordable vehicle choices, and force residents to rely on a charging infrastructure that does not yet exist.
Moore, a Democrat, blamed President Donald Trump, citing the current administration’s withholding of federal funds and concerns from automakers.
“There are indications that the policies of the current federal administration will greatly impact … compliance,” he said. The order noted that the Department of Transportation has held back funding under former president Joe Biden’s $7.5 billion program to build a network of EV chargers across the country.That program, the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, was designed to push billions of dollars in federal taxpayer funds to state governments for the purpose of constructing EV charging stations. But the program has faced widespread criticism for producing just a handful of stations over the course of three years and, in one of his first actions, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy froze funding for the program and vowed to “recalibrate” implementation.
However, we may have reached peak-EV-mania in this nation, which may also play a part in the state’s calculation.
American interest in owning EVs is running out of gas.
Americans are less interested in buying and owning electric vehicles than they were two years ago, according to polling Gallup released Tuesday.The poll shows that the number of Americans who are open to buying an EV has dropped to 51 percent in early 2025, down from 59 percent in 2023.EV makers face increasing pressures from sweeping Trump administration tariffs, the threat of repeal of consumer tax credits and a halt to a national build-out of EV chargers.While EV sales are still on the rise from year to year, the increase has slowed in recent months. Tesla sales in particular have plummeted as Elon Musk’s push to cut the federal workforce as head of the U.S. DOGE Service has polarized the country.
Hot Air’s Beege Welborne explains the market realities that California opted to ignore when it created its mandate.
EV sales reached their zenith a couple of years ago, and while still selling, it’s nowhere near the pace that eager-beaver cultists and authoritarian governments had projected and based their decrees on.European car makers have been scrambling to drop or downsize planned new EV model rollouts, burnish what they do have, and focus on their ICE and hybrid money-makers.Here in the States, thanks to the November 5th election, we’ve managed to stop some of the bleeding.There won’t be any EV mandate coming out of an administration that is actively working to undo the harm of the previous one’s climate-driven insanity.Yeah, I voted for this.
I voted for this, too….and it’s even better than I expected.
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