Last year, Connecticut opted to delay implementing California-style electric vehicle (EV) mandates and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin held off on his state’s EV requirement by year’s end. Now, Maryland is the latest state that has decided to put off its EV mandate in which the Old Line State’s governor, Wes Moore, blames Trump (of course).

“There are indications that the policies of the current federal administration will greatly impact … compliance,” he said. The order noted that the Department of Transportation has held back funding under former president Joe Biden’s $7.5 billion program to build a network of EV chargers across the country.

That program, the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, was designed to push billions of dollars in federal taxpayer funds to state governments for the purpose of constructing EV charging stations. But the program has faced widespread criticism for producing just a handful of stations over the course of three years and, in one of his first actions, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy froze funding for the program and vowed to “recalibrate” implementation.

However, American’s interest in owning electric vehicles is on the downswing and it has little to do with Elon Musk.

Americans have been slower to switch on to the idea of owning an electric car than their British, European and Chinese counterparts, and now it looks like what interest they did have has already peaked and is sliding in the opposite direction.

While EV sales were up last year, the rate of take-up has slowed and the percentage of US drivers who either own an EV are open to buying electric has fallen over the last 24 months according to a new study. In 2025 barely more than half of American drivers give consideration to EV ownership, a Gallup poll found.

In 2023 the percentage of drivers who’d said they’d already switched to an EV or were genuinely think about making their next purchase an EV stood at 59 percent. When Gallup asked the same question in 2025 that number had dropped to just 51 percent.

The enthusiasm for electric vehicles is done since the early enthusiasm dried up and most people are not willing to pay for something they cannot afford or do not need.