The latest on EV sales/mandates in New Mexico

The Rio Grande Foundation has continued in its efforts to both track and overturn MLG’s electric vehicle mandates. These mandates take effect in model year 2026. Those cars will start appearing on dealer lots early this fall. Under the Gov.’s mandate 43% of them will have to be electric.

According to the Center for Automotive Innovation as of the fourth quarter of 2024 (the most recent information available) just 5.35% of all vehicles sold in New Mexico are currently electric. In other words, it is impossible that New Mexicans will willingly ramp up purchases of EV’s by a factor of nearly 10 in the span of less than a year.

Sadly, despite the fact that some Democrats in New Mexico’s Democrat-controlled Legislature oppose the Gov.’s mandate they (again) did nothing to restore their policymaking power by eliminating this absurd EV mandate and prohibiting unelected bodies from imposing similar regulations. What will happen next?

The US House is poised to vote to overturn the Biden Administration’s waiver which allows California to set its own EV mandates (and states like New Mexico to follow them). That may be the best option available at this point. MLG could choose to not enforce the mandate when it starts later this year due to the impossibility of achieving it, but it is impossible to say at this point. At this point I wouldn’t want to own or work for a New Mexico car dealership.