Featured Federal EV fees

Quoted from the article at the root of this thread:

(emphasis mine)

So with all the other "political non-starters" that have already occurred in the past 100 days, what's special about this one?

Just crank it up to $2/gallon and leave it for another 30+ years.

 

I would think the petroleum lobby would have something to say about that one.

 

i don't mind paying my fair share for road and bridge maintenance. while i think there are more fair ways to go about it, 200 bucks a year isn't going to kill most ev owners.
i'm driving about 6,000 miles a year in the bolt. at 25mpg in a gasser, that would be 240 gallons of gas.
at 42 cents/gal state and fed tax, that's about a hundred bucks

 

someone moved the goalpost

 

The best answer is to eliminate per gallon taxes and make a universal tag tax both State and Federal. I would just base it on tire count and not try anything more sophisticated.

Bob Wilson

 

Having a goalpost implies that there is a definable goal, right?

Mike

 

i think yes

 

Wisconsin any car 20+ has permenent plates, Montana has played with permanent as well (possibly not at the moment)

 

Montana gets permanent stickers at 10yrs. The Mercedes motorhome we just sold was 10 years old & it just got 'em

 

So does that mean you have no registration fees each year after that?
How do they know if the car is still in operation or has moved to another state, for example. Or do they not care?

Mike

 

ok - i'll $plain.
You still have to pay a nominal fee for registration, you just don't get a new sticker. The worst downside for this is, there are nefarious wealthy, very wealthy people that will register a bogus LLC here in Montana, where they keep their hyper sports car registered, to avoid the hideous fees you would normally pay in your real place of residence, had you registered your $500,00 or million dollar + car in the state you actually keep it in normally.



iirc - the fee is standard for vehicles that are new to around 2 or 3 years old, then they have an even cheaper rate than pretty new - & once they're older than that, they have the stuff that's 10 years old & older registered as permanent for the lowest fee - regardless of how much the vehicle costs.
(but we get taxed on SS income, 401k, pension, SEP, ETC which is why we funneled Lots into a Roth early on)
.

 

So to answer original question about another poster’s statement:

The states that you know of, still have annual registrations fees?

 

May be behind a pay wall but interesting presentation of the current tax status by states https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/05/05/republicans-electric-vehicle-tax-fee/

 

When I asked ChatGPT it claims every state has an annual DMV fee.

Mike

 

It is unclear why electric car owners are against taxes and fees that go towards road maintenance. If Republicans push through a bill to impose an annual fee of, say, $600 on electric cars, how many of the environmentalists will continue to drive electric cars?

 

That is a huge strawman fallacy.
I have spoken in person to hundreds of EV owners. Not one is against taxes and fees that go towards road maintenance.

What they are against, is having one method that charges by use (gas taxes) and a different method that charges a flat fee.

Use the same method for all vehicles. Use mileage (and weight if you like), or have a flat fee for everyone.

Personally, I am against a flat fee, I would rather have a fee/tax based on mileage.

I fully support taxes to support road maintenance and construction.
Just don't have a different structure for ICE, BEV, PHEV, HEV.

 

Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. Mileage is rolled back quite easily and there is practically no liability for this. When they start charging taxes on car mileage, everyone will roll back.

The mileage of a car on diesel or gasoline is clear, how much fuel you fill up at the gas station is how much you will drive on the road.
A hybrid also depends on how full the tank is. Here taxes can be taken directly from the cost of fuel.

It is more difficult with plug-in hybrids, they may not need to be filled at all and still drive on the road.

 

Isn’t selling a car with a dialed back odometer illegal?
I don’t recall ever hearing about people dialing back their odometers to get a better deal when selling their car.

And if charging by mileage is too difficult, eliminate the gas tax and charge everyone a flat fee.
Just don’t charge some a ‘use tax’ and others a flat fee.