Data

An Analysis of Electric Vehicle Registrations in Washington State

by Neha Magesh

As some Washington state residents decide to leave fuel-powered cars behind in favor of plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles both due to government programs and personal reasons like environmental consciousness, the number of electric vehicles registrations in the state continues to increase yearly.

There are currently 177,866 electric vehicle registrations made by Washington state residents, 177,491 of whom registered their vehicle in Washington state. With a total population of about 16 million people, this means that around 1.10% of the state’s population has registered an electric vehicle within in the state.

This chart uses 2023 population data from “Population by State, County and City, 1990 to Present” sourced from https://data.wa.gov.

However, these electric vehicle registrations are not spread out evenly by county. Of the 39 counties in Washington state, San Juan County has the highest percentage (2.39%) of electric vehicle registrations, with 942 registrations out of 39,415 residents and Garfield County has the lowest (0.07%), with 4 registrations out of 5,995 residents.

This chart uses 2023 population data from “Population by State, County and City, 1990 to Present” and EV registration data from “Electric Vehicle Population Data” both sourced from https://data.wa.gov. Population data in this chart includes both incorporated and unincorporated county populations. Total population data includes residents under 16 years old and residents without drivers licenses. EV Data includes only vehicles registered in WA counties and discounts any WA residents who may have registered their vehicles in other states. There may be more than one registration per car, and each registration should not be assumed to represent one unique car.

The county with the highest population, King County, had 92,740 registrations out of 6,794,340 residents (1.36%). The county with the lowest population was also Garfield County, which also had the smallest percent of registrations per county population. The median county population was Walla Walla County’s 171,960 residents. Walla Walla County had 437 electric vehicle registrations (0.25%).

Disregarding San Juan County as an outlier, the counties with larger percentages of electric vehicle registrations have a loose correlation to counties with larger populations. More populated counties like King, Pierce, Snohomish, Clark and Thurston have a much larger percentage of electric vehicle registration than sparsely populated counties like Garfield, Columbia and Ferry.

More outliers include Spokane County, with a population of 1,500,410 residents but only 4,586 registrations (0.30%) and Wahkiakum County, with a population of 9,675 residents and 60 registrations (0.62%).

Why might San Juan County, consisting entirely of islands, have such a high percentage of registrations? The answer may lie in the question of accessibility—according to data from the San Juan County Utilities Inventory and San Juan Islands Conservation District (SJICD), “San Juan County has the highest number of public EV chargers per capita in Washington State”. Since San Juan County residents have better access to public electric vehicle chargers, residents may feel more comfortable purchasing an electric vehicle, leading to a high percentage of registrations. Similarly, infrastructure, politics and capacity may impact the thought process of residents in all counties, which could explain the other outlier data.

Since Washington State has passed legislation to reduce the sale of fuel-powered vehicles to zero by 2035, the number of electric car purchases and registrations will certainly increase in the coming years. It will be important to note which counties readily accept this legislation and which counties push back heavily, as these are greater indications of attitudes towards clean energy initiatives and Washington State transportation legislature.

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