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Oregon and nine other states recently achieved a collective goal of shifting new car buyers toward electric rather than gas-powered vehicles in an effort to reduce pollution and combat climate change.

The states have collectively registered 3.3 million new electric vehicles in the last 12 years, fulfilling a 2013 agreement to do so by 2025, according to a report shared Monday by the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management, a Boston-based nonprofit association of state air pollution control agencies.

In 2013, the then-governors of Oregon, California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont collectively agreed that they would boost policies and public information that could spur the sales of zero-emission vehicles in their states.

Transportation was and remains the largest source of planet warming greenhouse gases in Oregon and the nation. When then-Gov. John Kitzhaber signed onto the 2013 agreement, just 300 electric vehicles were registered in Oregon. Today, more than 100,000 EVs have been registered in the state, according to the Oregon Department of Energy. That’s about 5% of all new cars registered in the state in the last decade.

Gov. Tina Kotek in a news release called the growth of electric vehicle adoption in Oregon, and the realization of the 2013 goals, a “milestone.”

“Transportation electrification is key to meeting Oregon’s climate goals,” she said. “Strong partnerships between states and private sector partners will be key to the nation’s success in the years to come.

In 2013, there were 16 EV models available for purchase in the U.S., according to the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management. Today, there are more than 150 models.

Cumulative electric vehicle sales across the 10 states grew steadily in the first few years after the 2013 memorandum, but sales fully doubled from 2022 to 2024. In 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act that included a $7,500 tax rebate on the purchase of a new electric vehicle. Oregon’s own rebate program, passed in 2017, and offers up to $7,500 back on the purchase of an electric vehicle. The program, which has paused issuing rebates since June of 2024 for a lack of adequate funding, is expected to resume sometime in 2025, according to the Department of Environmental Quality.

One-third of all electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles registered in Oregon received one of the state’s Clean Vehicle Rebates, according to officials at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, which distributes the rebates. The rebates have been worth nearly $100 million since 2017.

Since 2013, five more states have created their own zero-emission vehicle programs similar to those of the original taskforce states to spur electric vehicle adoption and expand charging infrastructure through public investment and tax rebates, according to the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management. Oregon and those 14 other states now account for more than one-third of all U.S. sales of new electric vehicles.

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News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/03/17/oregon-nine-other-states-hit-2013-goal-of-getting-33m-electric-vehicles-on-roads-by-2025/