What are the policies?
- Maryland is building its network of electric vehicle chargers.
- The state is aiming to dramatically increase the number of electric vehicles on the roads to 1.1 million by 2031. Legislation sets the goal for all new car sales to be electric or hybrid by 2035. It has a similar law for medium and heavy-duty trucks, but an executive order from Moore this spring allowed enforcement of both programs to be pushed back past model year 2028.
- The state is also required to transition the state fleet and school buses to EVs.
- A popular state excise tax credit for EVs lasted only a month before it was sold out, according to state officials.
- The Maryland Department of Transportation is aiming to cut back on “vehicle miles traveled” by 20% per capita by 2050. It’s promoting development near transit stops to encourage public transit use. Meanwhile, Baltimore’s Red Line project and the Purple Line in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties will expand mass transit.
Who’s paying for it?
- The state’s EV charging buildout is set to receive $63 million from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Plan, but the Federal Highway Administration paused access to funding earlier this year. Maryland has already been approved for $49.5 million, but had only obligated $14.7 million before the pause. It’s one of several states suing the Trump administration over the pause in funding access.
- In early 2024, Moore put $23 million in grants toward charging infrastructure. The state EV charging rebate and the EV excise tax credit receive millions of dollars from the Strategic Energy Investment Fund.
- The state has a grant program for electric school buses.
What progress has been made so far?
- The first round of federally funded public EV chargers are expected to be up and running by next spring. Tesla and other private companies are also installing chargers in the state.
- There were about 1,500 public charging stations available across Maryland as of the end of April, with almost 4,400 total charging ports. Maryland’s current buildout through the federal EV charging program will add 22 new stations by spring of next year, with a goal of 51 in total.
- There were just over 135,000 registered EVs in Maryland as of April, up from under 15,000 in 2020. The state tax credit for EVs is out of funding for this fiscal year but will restart this summer.
- As of last fall, EVs made up 12% of new sales and 2.3% of all vehicles in Maryland. Electric vehicles are supposed to make up 43% of car sales in 2027 under Advanced Clean Cars II, but enforcement of that rule has been temporarily relaxed.
- The Moore administration’s executive order on EV legislation established a working group tasked with figuring out the best way to implement Maryland’s clean car goals.
- This is the second year Maryland has required that new school buses be electric. But state officials expect all of the state’s school districts to get waivers to that new rule, as they did last year. Maryland had 242 electric school buses last summer, and state officials said Maryland is ahead of many other states with school bus electrification. However, the costs and challenges of transitioning to electric buses have led districts in Montgomery County and Baltimore to put their EV bus programs on pause.
- The state’s six-year Consolidated Transportation Program includes funding for electrification, public transportation, pedestrian safety, bike trails and development near public transit.
Sources for this Q&A: 5 Million Trees for Maryland; Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington; CalMatters; Chesapeake Climate Action Network; Dr. Donald Boesch (president emeritus of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science); Industry Dive; Inside Climate News; International Energy Agency; Maryland Department of Agriculture; Maryland Department of the Environment; Maryland Department of Legislative Services; Maryland Department of Natural Resources; Maryland Department of Planning; Maryland Department of Transportation; Maryland Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration; Maryland Energy Administration; Maryland General Assembly; Maryland Matters; Maryland Office of People’s Counsel; Maryland Public Service Commission; Maryland Register (Maryland Division of State Documents); Montgomery Community Media; NPR; Office of Gov. Wes Moore; Office of the Attorney General of California; Politico; Reuters; S&P Global; The Baltimore Sun; The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (rggi.org); The White House; U.S. Department of Energy Alternative Fuels Data Center; U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration; U.S. Energy Information Administration; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; U.S. Rep. Sarah Elfreth.