Our transition from fossil fuels continues. Every three months, I report here how the transition is going. With recent events at the federal level, I was reluctant to look at how we’re doing. But, so far, not too bad.
EV Purchasing
Over the last year, in the Edmonds-Lynnwood-Mountlake Terrace area, electric vehicle purchasing rose 26% from 6% of vehicle purchases in the first three months (Q1) of 2024 to 8% in Q1 2025, according to data from the Washington State Department of Licensing. Gasoline-powered vehicle purchases fell from 94% of sales to 92%.
In the Edmonds-Lynnwood-MLT area, the portion of used vehicle purchases that were electric is up 146% from 2% in Q1 2024 to over 4% in Q1 2025. The portion of new vehicle purchases that were electric held steady at 20%.
In Washington state overall, electric vehicle purchasing rose 18% from 4.5% of purchases in Q1 2024 to 5.3% in Q1 2025.
For Washington state overall, EV purchasing rose 48% for used vehicles and 6% for new. The higher EV growth in used vehicles reflects EV growth in new vehicles in prior years. The increase in EV buying in used sales is partly because there are more used EVs to buy.
What you see on the road
Electric vehicles are now 3% of the vehicles registered in Washington State. In the Edmonds-Lynnwood-MLT area, one out of 25 vehicles is electric.
Although 20% of new vehicle purchases are electric, the total number of vehicles on the road are no more than 4% electric. You don’t see many EVs because electric vehicles are a new thing. Of the electric vehicles in Washington state, half were built in the last two years.
The oil commitment of a new gasoline-powered car
If you’re in the market, buying a used EV is a great thing to do. You save money on energy and maintenance and you save on the purchase price too. The tax credit of $4,000 (or 30% of the purchase price) continues through this year. You are also joining the gasoline boycott. A boycott stopped the ozone hole, and boycotts help stop global warming.
Buying or leasing a new electric vehicle saves on energy costs and maintenance. It also reduces the total gasoline burning and greenhouse gas pollution of the cars on the road. Used car sales move cars around. New car sales feed the pool.
Each new gasoline car comes with a guarantee of releasing about 76 metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution by burning about 8,000 gallons of gasoline. By comparison, the average American causes about 15 metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution each year. Buying a gasoline-powered car is making a commitment to 5 years of an American’s global warming pollution.
Burning those 8,000 gallons of gasoline requires extracting about 400 barrels of oil, which is about 2,250 cubic feet of oil. That is for one car. When you drive your new car off the lot, everything in that car adds up to less than 10 cubic feet of material. (When a car crusher squishes a car into a block, the block is about 8 cubic feet.) If your new car is gasoline powered, along with those 8-10 cubic feet, you made a commitment for another 2,250 cubic feet of resources dug and pumped out of the ground to move you from place to place.
You could sell that gasoline-powered car tomorrow and buy an EV, and your 2,250 cubic feet of oil and 76 tons of carbon dioxide are still committed. Someone will drive that gasoline car 200,000 to 300,000 miles.
If you are planning to buy a used EV, don’t feel hassled into buying a new one. You’re doing great driving a used EV. But if you are planning to buy a new car, get an EV. Even better, lease one. With leasing, you can launch a new EV into the world every three years.
Tesla Sales
With Elon Musk’s DOGE and his support of the AfD in Germany, there have been efforts to discourage people from buying Teslas. Tesla sales have fallen in Europe. In Washington state, after selling 49.6% of the new EVs in 2024, Tesla’s EV market share dropped to 42% in February and fell again in March, down to 37%.
It’s not clear how much of that Tesla drop is due to anti-Musk publicity. Tesla has been losing market share every year since 2020, long before Musk joined up with Donald Trump. This year’s drop might be just more of what has been happening for years.
In Washington state, the Tesla Model Y is the best-selling EV, and the third bestselling vehicle model of any kind, behind only the Toyota RAV4 and the Honda CR-V. You can still get a $7,500 EV tax credit if your household income is less than $150,000 per person/spouse.
Even Better: Walk
Walking and biking are also boycotting gasoline. These days, I’m getting around mostly on bicycle and foot. Riding electric public transportation is boycotting gasoline too.
Nick Maxwell is a certified climate action planner at Climate Protection NW, teaches about climate protection at the Creative Retirement Institute and serves on the Edmonds Planning Board.
Hi Nick, Here is an important report by the IEA (International Energy Agency) https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2025/executive-summary. It says “Electric car sales exceeded 17 million globally in 2024, reaching a sales share of more than 20%.” It is expected that this will climb to 25% in 2025. More important is this: “Emerging markets in Asia and Latin America are becoming new centres of growth, with electric car sales jumping by over 60% in 2024 to almost 600 000 – about the size of the European market 5 years earlier.”
And before people post here about how unaffordable electric cars are, check out the Slate truck (backed by Bezos) that will be produced in the US and start at $25,000 in late 2026. Over 100,000 preorders have been announced. https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/trucks/america-s-cheapest-electric-pickup-slate-truck-ev-stuns-with-100k-preorders/ar-AA1EKI7r I’ve read it even includes old-fashioned crank windows. This simple truck is just what the EV industry needs. Back to basics, like the little Datsun pickup truck of old, which showed Detroit that many people didn’t need the “biggest and best” cars they were producing. I have fond memories of my little Datsun pickup. It ran forever.
EVs are just getting started. New types of batteries, including solid state, are being developed. Solid state batteries could double their range and be safer. Manufacturing efficiencies will also come into play, bringing costs down. Oil companies must be getting plenty worried.
I hadn’t heard of these new “solid state batteries”, until now, but they sound great. Increased range and safety would correct two of the EV’s major drawbacks. However, I’m sure everyone realizes the battery is just a fuel tank that stores electricity that was generated somewhere else, and, probably, by fossil fuel.
A Chinese company is already claiming to have the solid state batteries, but there is also a startup in Massachusetts that is working on them. see: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/business/mercedes-factorial-solid-state-battery.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Hk8.tTRA.wfNIeZnCYWjs&smid=url-share
Of course Trump will probably try to squash that. I believe he is getting all that foreign money, the Qatar jet, the hotel deals from the oil rich Mid East, because he is making sure to halt progress on renewables in this country. But Trump’s corruption can’t stop the rest of the world. And even if EVs are powered by fossil fuels in some places (not Washington for the most part), that will slowly change. Remember, burning fuel in an ICE car is the most inefficient and polluting way to burn energy, especially when you count all the damage from extracting the fuel, refining it, transporting it, and burning it, so EVs are still ahead of the game.
Here in Snohomish County, 95% of our electricity is generated without burning fossil fuels — no natural gas, no coal.
Thanks, Arlene!
Yes, as the U.S. blocks EVs and solar panels from China, they end up spread other places all around the world
It appears now, that the Chinese installed “kill switches” and surveillance systems in the solar panels. Who knows what they installed in the EVs.
I’ve never heard that. Can you share any links to reporting on such things?
Maybe you could search “Chinese kill switch” I guess PBS doesn’t cover this kind of news.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=hp&q=Chinese+kill+switches&ia=web
So WA. has hydro power…Most of the world doesn’t!
Got it. So the surveillance is that the manufacturer can check on how the solar panels are working and there is a mechanism for the manufacturer to stop outputting electricity.
Thanks for sharing that!
So, those good old Chinese have control of our power, but they just want to be helpful.
Spain? Portugal???
You’re welcome!
All the more reason to fund green energy research and production in the US instead of turning our back on it. Trump is handing the future to the Chinese. He is shutting down our scientists and they are heading out of the country. It’s a big brain drain for America. We will fall far behind and China wins the race for the global green market.
The whole premise of the article was helpful info about buying a new or used EV. Can we readers be given the courtesy of reading the article without some commenter relitigating the pros and cons of the 2016 and 2024 presidential elections? Thanks to the commenter above, it looks like sadly we are obliged to bask in anti-Trump sentiments while mulling over whether or not to buy an EV. (Hint: It is not helpful to drag Trump into this topic)
Considering that Trump is doing everything he can to make sure buying an EV is more difficult or making it possible for it to be charged from renewable energy, I would say it is very appropriate to discuss Trump in an article about buying an EV. He wants to repeal EV credits and renewable energy credits. He is cancelling grants for the installing of EV chargers and other green energy projects like electrification. He is withholding permits for wind farms. He wants to increase oil leases on public lands and blocking renewable energy projects on public lands. He is forcing himself into the conversation, not me. He is holding our country back.