Assessment
Significantly reducing transportation sector emissions depends on rapidly electrifying most vehicles while increasing public transit ridership, biking, and pedestrian opportunities. Massachusetts fell short of its 2025 electric vehicle (EV) benchmarks, with multiple factors having chilled the market for EVs: the federal government rescinded the $7,500 federal tax credit for new EV purchases; Congress withdrew several lawfully granted EPA waivers that provide California authority to regulate mobile sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions more stringently than the federal government; and the Administration unlawfully sought to roll back states’ Clean Air Act authority to adopt California’s Clean Cars regulations. The Commonwealth is a party to litigation challenging these unlawful actions.
Despite these challenges, Massachusetts’ medium- and heavy-duty EV registrations jumped 140% in 2025, representing progress among the vehicles that have the greatest impact per vehicle on emissions and health. The number of public charging ports grew 18%, and Massachusetts installed Direct Current (DC) fast ports increased 59%. Nonetheless, if EV adoption increases in line with the state climate plan, EV charging deployment would need to increase significantly through 2030. Statewide vehicle miles traveled (VMT) continued their post-COVID rebound, but a historic $8 billion state transportation investment helps lay the groundwork for more reliable public transit.
| Metric | Submetric | 2023 Report Value | 2024 Report Value | 2025 Report Value | Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of registered electric vehicles | Light-duty battery electric vehicles or plug-in hybrid light-duty vehicles on the road at the end of the year1 | 103,436 | 139,018 | 166,296 | The 2025/2030 CECP states a benchmark of 200,000 total light-duty EVs on the road by the end of 2025. |
| Medium-/heavy-duty electric vehicles on the road at the end of the year1, 2 | 98 | 301 | 735 | The 2025/2030 CECP states a benchmark of 3,200 total medium-/heavy-duty EVs on the road by the end of 2025. | |
Number of installed electric vehicle public charging ports | Number of installed electric vehicle public charging ports | 6,767 | 8,791 | 10,387 | The EVICC3 estimates the need for 12,000 public charging station ports by the end of 2025 and 45,500 by the end of 2030.4 |
| Percentage of ports in EJ communities | New in 2025 | New in 2025 | 57.4% | No goal at this time. As a reference point, 49.6% of the statewide population lives in EJ census tracts | |
| Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) for light-duty and medium-/heavy-duty vehicles | Light-duty vehicles miles traveled | 53,321 million miles in 2022 | 57,191 million miles in 2023 | 58,123 million miles in 2024 | CECP modeling projects total light-duty VMT to increase to about 57,900 million miles travelled in 2025 and about 59,100 million in 20305 |
| Medium-/heavy-duty miles traveled | 3,626 million miles in 2022 | 3,557 million miles in 2023 | 3,889 million miles in 2024 | CECP modeling projects total medium-/heavy-duty VMT at about 3,400 million miles travelled in 2025 and about 3,500 million in 2030. |
Primary Challenges
- Despite a brief jump prior to their expiration, the loss of federal EV tax credits resulted in slowing EV sales at the end of 2025. This also discourages automaker investment.
- Despite steady expansion, more reliable charging options are needed for people who require off-street parking, live in rural areas, or reside in multi-unit housing.
- Rollbacks of federal fuel economy standards and federal attacks on state emissions standards create market uncertainty that discourages manufacturing of more efficient models.
How we are meeting this moment
Massachusetts is supporting transportation decarbonization through coordinated state action and program expansion. Despite nation-leading levels of charger density, concerns about charging availability remain the largest barrier to EV adoption. Massachusetts evaluated these barriers in its Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Coordinating Council (EVICC) Second Assessment, released in August, and is implementing its key recommendations. This includes drafting charger reliability regulations, streamlining customer eligibility for the state’s suite of charger incentive programs,6 and simplifying the process for charger site hosting. Further, the state will allocate $46 million to support the strategic buildout of EV chargers across the state. The state also continues to make progress in deploying EV chargers along major highway coordinators through the use of federal National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) funds, with NEVI sites coming online in 2026. While unable to fill the gap left by its federal partner, the state continues to provide EV purchase incentives through its Massachusetts Offers Rebates for Electric Vehicles (MOR-EV) program and assess how it can further stretch these resources. Technical assistance programs including MassFleet Advisor continue to support fleets in transitioning away from gas and diesel vehicles. Massachusetts also continues to invest in public transit, yielding improvements in service, reliability and ridership. As of October, Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) ridership is up 11% year-over-year. Combined, these initiatives aim to overcome barriers, strengthen state leadership in the absence of federal incentives, and support progress in reducing transportation sector emissions.