When President Trump proposed rolling back fuel-efficiency standards on cars this past week, he did it with his usual panache, calling electric cars “a green new scam.”
The idea of mandating a gradual shift to EVs is “insane,” he said.
But was it really going to be so far-fetched to get rid of gas cars?
It sure looks like the green dream may have been closer than previously thought, according to the latest data from Washington state about new cars hitting the road.
I say “could have been” because the federal government now seems hellbent to keep Americans guzzling oil until long after the last glacier is melted.
But first, a remarkable data point.
In October, 37% of the new cars sold in King County were battery-powered electrics (this includes plug-in hybrids) — in other words, cars that can be plugged in. This smashed the record for one-month adoption of green cars.
An additional 20% sold were hybrids. That means the old-style type of cars — those with solely internal combustion engines — made up only 43% of the new cars registered for the month in King County.
Statewide, 26% of new cars sold and then registered in October were EVs, and 20% gas-electric hybrids. So across the entire state, gas-only cars declined to just 54% of new car sales in October, according to state Department of Licensing registration data.
“It’s a temporary peak, unfortunately, but it also shows how far we’ve come,” says Matthew Metz.
Metz is a retired Seattle torts lawyer who took up the cause of banning new gas cars 10 years ago. He was called “moonbatty,” a “commie,” and so on. He reported to me back in 2017 that when the idea of phasing out gas cars first made the news, “99.9% of the reaction was negative.”
“People will get over it,” he predicted then.
The political system and the oil industry of course didn’t get over it. But Metz was right that large swaths of the population did.
Consider that in 2017, electric cars made up just 2% of new car sales in this state, with hybrids only 5%. Internal combustion engines had a monopoly-level hold on the market, at 93% of all new cars hitting the roads.
Fast-forward eight years. The state’s largest county just crossed a tipping point where fewer than half the cars sold here in August, September and October combined were gas-combustion only. Who would have bet on that in 2017?
“When we started on this, EVs had a stigma,” Metz said. “There were very few electric cars available. There were no chargers. The charge times were three times longer. There’s still a ton of work to do, but the stigma is in the past.”
The surge in sales this fall was in part because buyers were scrambling to take advantage of expiring federal tax credits. Republicans have killed those off, as Trump gleefully noted this past week when he lowered the auto industry’s fuel mileage standards.
“Today, we’re taking one more step to kill the green new scam, as part of the greatest scam, probably,” Trump said.
Metz founded a group, called Coltura, to try to wean both Washington and the nation completely off of gas. So he’s a crazy optimist. But he sounded a bit resigned about the future.
Since Trump returned to office, he and congressional Republicans have sought to cancel the ability of California and other states to set their own car standards. It means the push in Washington state to try to shift new car sales all the way up to 100% EV by 2035 has effectively been scotched (though the Trump action is being challenged in court.)
Metz shared industry data showing that sales of some makes of electric cars have plunged in November, since the tax credits expired.
He now predicts that with the government hostility, momentum for EVs will slow. Maybe increasing to 50% of new car sales by 2035, he said, but 100% is a dream deferred.
“Unless they want to turn us into Cuba, with only the old model gas cars and trucks driving around, then it’s inevitable that the market is going to keep moving ahead in some way with EVs,” he said. “But it is back to the drawing board.”
I kid you not, the day after Metz made this crack about turning us into Cuba, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had this to say about the fuel standards rollback:
“This rule will actually allow you to bring back the 1970s station wagon,” Duffy said. “Maybe a little wood paneling on the side. We can bring back choice to consumers.”
Make America like the ’70s again! Up to 90% of China’s small car sales already are electric, and green tech there is booming. Meanwhile our leaders are nostalgically fantasizing about road trips at 10 mpg.
There are some obvious drawbacks to EVs. They’re expensive to buy and still too inconvenient to fill with juice (especially for those in apartments or without driveways). But Republican consultant Mike Murphy last year polled Americans on electric cars and found that most of the divide isn’t pragmatic.
“It’s tribal,” Murphy wrote. “In our modern politics any friend of my enemy must be my enemy too. If Joe Biden is for EVs, we must be against them.”
I asked Metz for his take.
“I think Republicans are just pro-oil,” he said. “They want to keep the oil economy going for as long as they can, and that’s pretty much it.”
It’s like that 2006 documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” in which the oil powers sabotage a prototype EV to save their golden goose. On rerun in 2025.
So what will become of the green dream to end gas? The car sales story this fall in King County and around some parts of the state is tantalizing. A third of cars that just sold in King County have no engine in them at all — an inconceivable statistic only a few years ago.
Will this be looked back on as the first proof of a new age dawning? Or as a fad?
I guess if we see the station wagon making a comeback, we’ll have our answer.
The opinions expressed in reader comments are those of the author only and do not reflect the opinions of The Seattle Times.

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