The Interagency Electric Vehicle Coordinating Council (EV Council) was established in 2022 to enable state agencies to collaborate on accelerating electric vehicle adoption and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. The EV Council includes members of 10 state agencies who play a central role in the statewide effort to transition to electric vehicles (EVs). Agency members coordinate on policy development, program implementation, and funding opportunities so that all Washington residents can enjoy the benefits of EVs.
The EV Council is governed by RCW 43.392. Recommendations from the EV Council focus on increasing access to electric vehicles, ensuring reliable EV charging infrastructure across the state, and promoting available market incentives to benefit all Washington residents. The objectives of the EV Council include:
- Develop a statewide transportation electrification strategy: The EV Council, along with its advisory committee, consultants, and supporting staff collaborated to create a comprehensive scoping plan to help Washington achieve its goal of having all passenger and light-duty vehicles sold in the state be electric by model year 2035. That plan, called the Transportation Electrification Strategy (TES), was submitted to the Legislature in February 2024. Access the strategy (PDF).
- Identify and coordinate all state and federal electric vehicle-related funding: The EV Council works to ensure the benefits of using electric vehicles are accessible to everyone in the state. For current funding opportunities, please see the “Funding Opportunities” section above.
- Ensure the benefits from transportation electrification flow to vulnerable and overburdened communities. The TES, grant fund distribution, programs, and associated activities should be accessible to all Washingtonians.
- Measure outcomes and collect and publicize data to track progress on policy and program implementation. The EV Council will provide updates on performance measurements at its regular meetings; its Annual Report (PDF) to the Legislature will provide a comprehensive look at progress made throughout each year.
The EV Council’s work is guided by a charter (PDF) adopted in March 2025. The charter provides the EV Council’s mission, vision and ongoing objectives, and it communicates each member agency’s role in the transition to EVs.
These efforts support the state’s goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.
The EV Council is a unique collaboration of a permanent group of designated staff people from the following 10 Washington state agencies:
- Department of Commerce (Co-Chair)
- Department of Transportation (Co-Chair)
- Department of Agriculture
- Department of Ecology
- Department of Enterprise Services
- Department of Health
- Office of Financial Management
- Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction
- State Efficiency and Environmental Performance Office
- Utilities and Transportation Commission
Planning, measuring and reporting success
The Transportation Electrification Strategy (TES), which was delivered to the Legislature in early 2024, guides the EV Council. The TES was developed to ensure that the state’s vehicle market and transportation infrastructure can support the transition to all new passenger vehicle sales being electric by 2035. Read the strategy or view the interactive TES dashboard.
Annual work plan
The EV Council’s annual work plan directs efforts to implement the TES, and the council measures its progress against TES benchmarks and statutory targets regularly. Related documents:
The EV Council holds regular public meetings to discuss policy development efforts, review clean transportation funding and program information, and track outcomes. The public is welcome to attend virtually and submit comments/questions at the EV Council meetings held via Zoom. Meetings can also be viewed on TVW.
Meeting resources
- Register to attend the Jan. 28, 2026, EV Council meeting
- Watch the Jan. 28, 2026, EV Council meeting on TVW
- Access EV Council meeting materials (Box)
The EV Council will hold its 2026 public meetings on the following dates:
- January 28
- March 25
- May 20
- July 15
- September 16
- November 18
The EV Council approved a biennial Council work plan for the July 1, 2025-June 30, 2027, period at its November 19, 2025, meeting. The work plan outlines the actions member agencies will take to support the EV Council’s EV Council’s mission statement: coordinating a unified, equitable strategy to meet Washington’s zero-emission vehicle standards.
The work plan also includes an EV Council program catalog (Excel) showing all the vehicle electrification funding opportunities available from state agencies. It highlights open opportunities and details what the opportunity funds, who is eligible to apply, and when the opportunity will be available. Additionally, the catalog describes special electric rates and funding available through electric utilities. Finally, it includes links to the key laws, rules, and other regulatory guidance that gives the EV Council members the authority to perform their vehicle electrification work.
The work plan and the catalog are living documents. The work plan will be updated as needed, while the catalog will be updated with current funding opportunities monthly.
One of the most important responsibilities of the EV Council is to measure the state’s progress toward its goals. The EV Council does this through annual reports and through an EV Council data dashboard.
The dashboard demonstrates how far the state has come on its vehicle electrification journey, and the progress that still must be made towards its targets. It is updated monthly for most metrics. Others are updated less frequently, when new data becomes available.
Have a question or suggestion for the EV Council dashboard? Contact us at CleanTransportation@commerce.wa.gov.
The Transportation Electrification Strategy (TES) looked at different scenarios for how Washington could expand electric transportation. These scenarios considered policy, market trends, the economy, and consumer choices. The modeling set annual targets for light-duty electric vehicles (EVs) and direct current fast-charging (DCFC) ports at the state, county, and neighborhood levels.
By 2025, two years after the modeling was done, the EV Council updated those targets to reflect new EV market trends, policy changes, and data on Washington’s growing EV population:
One of the EV Council’s key priorities is to identify and coordinate on funding opportunities that will help people and businesses transition to EVs.
Are you looking for funding for an EV charger for your business? Or are you looking to take advantage of incentives to buy an EV for your family? See the most recent funding opportunities under News and updates below or view all opportunities at FundHubWA.
News and updates
Additional resources
Washington’s new EV Mapping and Planning (EV-MAP) tool helps policymakers, businesses and planners decide where to add electric vehicle chargers. Developed by Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and Commerce, this interactive tool provides access to over 100 public data sets, including EV registrations, charging locations and utility service areas. As Washington moves toward a zero-emission future, the EV-MAP supports smart infrastructure planning to expand charging access and reduce range anxiety.
Explore the EV-MAP to see how data is shaping Washington’s electric future.
Below are a series of policy briefs based on the 2024 EV Council Annual Report (PDF):
- EV Council and the Transportation Electrification Strategy (PDF)
- 2024 state of the EV state (PDF)
- EV program and policy priorities (PDF)
- More Washington drivers go electric in 2024 (PDF)
- Charging network takes big step forward (PDF)
- What are we doing about broken chargers? (PDF)
- Medium- and heavy-duty trucks (PDF)
- Electric school buses (PDF)
- Transit buses (PDF)
- State fleets (PDF)
- Preparing the electric grid for EVs (PDFs)
- Overburdened communities and vulnerable populations (PDF)
- Air quality monitoring (PDF)
One of the EV Council’s first responsibilities was directing the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to submit the state’s NEVI plan to the Federal Highway Administration for approval. NEVI is a federal program created in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that will fund electric vehicle charging stations every 50 miles along major highway corridors. Washington’s plan has been approved, and Washington will receive more than $70 million in the next five years.
Visit WSDOT’s NEVI webpage for more information.
WUSCIA calculates the total costs for utilities to supply electricity to power the state’s growing number of electric vehicles. To do this, Commerce and ICF worked closely with utilities across the state to gather vital information about the distribution system and assess the financial and logistical impacts of EVs on the utility grid. ICF analyzed over 1,200 circuits from five utilities that covered 47% of the state’s population, and projected costs from this real data to estimate statewide costs.
WUSCIA included estimates for three cost scenarios (low, medium and high) to estimate the costs of utility infrastructure upgrades due to electric vehicles through 2035. The cost scenarios ranged from $7.95 billion to $11.66 billion and included distribution system and transmission system capital costs, plus maintenance and operation costs. This study built off of the data used to inform the Transportation Electrification Strategy (PDF), published in 2024.
This study is a first step in understanding the financial impact of grid upgrades necessary to support the states’ emissions reduction goals through electric vehicles. Managed charging strategies and polices that incentivize or actively manage off-peak charging can make a difference between a low-cost and high-cost scenario reality.
Utilities need to plan for the infrastructure needed to support the number of EVs expected in the state, and the state will need to coordinate planning between utilities and fleets to meet the electricity demand. Although the cost to charge an EV is considerably less than fueling a gas-powered vehicle, upgrades need to be structured so that those who are unable to purchase an EV are not shouldering the costs of expensive infrastructure upgrades.