Massachusetts is pumping the brakes on its ambitious goals to shift drivers from gas to electric vehicles, the Healey administration announced Friday.
The state will delay by two years the enforcement of a a rule that would have required 35 percent of cars sold to be electric and plug-in-hybrid starting with 2026 models. From there, the percentages had been set to increase annually until all vehicles sold in the state are fully electric in 2035.
The change is another sign that those goals may be untenable in light of the Trump administration’s full-throated opposition to electric vehicles — combined with concerns about the supply of compliant products. Several other states are delaying or canceling similar mandates.
Despite built-in flexibilities intended to help automakers that aren’t as far along with the transition to EVs, the rules have been met with fierce opposition. The announcement by Governor Maura Healey comes after months of challenges at the federal level, as well as from state legislators and auto dealers who have pushed to slow things down.
“EVs should be the most affordable and clean option for cars,” Governor Maura Healey said in a press release announcing her decision. “We’re giving carmakers more runway to invest in their manufacturing and supply chains, which will help ensure customers have additional affordable electric vehicles options at dealerships in the future.”
It had already been a rough week for EVs.
On Thursday, Congress passed a measure that would block California’s mandate to phase out gas-powered cars — a mandate that many states, including Massachusetts, were following, too.
Despite built-in flexibilities intended to help automakers that aren’t as far along with the transition to EVs, the rules have been met with fierce opposition. The announcement by Governor Maura Healey comes after months of challenges at the federal level, as well as from state legislators and auto dealers who have pushed to slow things down.
“EVs should be the most affordable and clean option for cars,” Governor Maura Healey said in a press release announcing her decision. “We’re giving carmakers more runway to invest in their manufacturing and supply chains, which will help ensure customers have additional affordable electric vehicles options at dealerships in the future.”
It had already been a rough week for EVs.
On Thursday, Congress passed a measure that would block California’s mandate to phase out gas-powered cars — a mandate that many states, including Massachusetts, were following, too.
Meanwhile, a US House-passed proposal backed by President Trump would wipe out subsidies for electric vehicles that were approved as part of the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act.
In Massachusetts, Healey‘s announcement Friday sparked disappointment from those who saw the rule as key to reducing emissions from transportation, which is the largest source of climate-warming pollution in the state. Many in the automotive industry, however, said Healey‘s action represented a reprieve from a policy that demanded too much, too soon.
Robert O’Koniewski, executive vice president of the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association, said that without less expensive electric vehicles and more charging infrastructure, the state isn’t ready to fully commit. But he also said the switch to electric vehicles is “just common sense.”
“It’s unrealistic to think that we’re going to be committed to ICE vehicles ad infinitum,” he said.
Larry Chretien, executive director of the Green Energy Consumers Alliance, noted that Massachusetts has been steadily increasing its share of electric vehicles that are sold, and that the announcement by Healey “will slow down adoption, there’s no question about it.”
According to state reports, Massachusetts needs 900,000 electric vehicles on the road by the end of this decade to reach its climate mandate — a sixfold increase from today.
In the announcement Friday, Healey did not abandon the effort entirely. She said that during the two-year pause, vehicle manufacturers will still be required to send quarterly reports detailing how they are promoting and marketing electric vehicles. Automakers can also earn credits for selling EVs, which will help toward meeting enforcement requirements down the road.
Massachusetts is not alone in backing off the EV push.
In Vermont earlier this month, Governor Phil Scott issued an executive order pausing its electric vehicle rule until at least the end of 2026. “It’s clear we don’t have anywhere near enough charging infrastructure and insufficient technological advances in heavy-duty vehicles to meet current goals,” said Scott.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore issued a similar order in April, and the state of Virginia said last year that it would completely abandon the California standard.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts announced a two-year delay in enforcing the zero-emission mandate for heavy trucks. The move came after the Healey administration in January began requiring that electric vehicles must comprise at least 7 percent of all new medium- and heavy-duty trucks sold in the state.
But truck makers said they could not produce enough vehicles to meet the quota unless they reduced the total number of trucks they sold in the state. The resulting vehicle shortages and falling truck sales led the administration to back off.
David Muradian, a Republican state representative from Grafton, who filed legislation to delay the mandate, applauded Healey‘s decision. “The administration understood that the goals, while laudable, were not realistic at this time,” Muradian said.