The number of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids in Vermont have doubled in the past two years — there are now more than 18,000 on the roads.
“We are sort of on an exponential growth path at the moment,” said David Roberts, an expert in transportation electrification at the energy nonprofit VEIC, the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation.
They’re still a tiny portion of the vehicles registered in the state — less than 4%, and well below the targets set by the state to meet its emission reduction requirements.
EV registrations have continued to go up in the first few months of the year, but there are a lot of unknowns in the market going forward, between tariffs and whether the Trump administration could limit states’ ability to regulate vehicle emissions.
Still, Roberts anticipates EV growth in the state to continue as more models become available and Vermonters can still get incentives from the federal government and many electric utilities.
“Now is actually a great time to be looking at an EV,” he said. “A lot of people can get up to $10,000 or more off a lease or, in some cases, a purchase.”
A state program that provided an additional incentive of up to $5,000 to purchase an EV ran out of money in the fall and, as of now, it doesn’t have funding for next year, Roberts said.
The state is working to invest in electric vehicles in other ways: There are now over 450 public chargers in Vermont. A state program provides many dealers with $400 for every qualified electric vehicle they sell. And dealerships can get thousands of dollars for infrastructure projects related to EVs, like installing chargers, and buying specialized EV service equipment and tools, according to Efficiency Vermont.
All of this is aimed at meeting the state’s ambitious emission reduction goals, Roberts said.
“I think we'll get there," he said. "But I don't know exactly when.”
