PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — A new bill filed in the Florida Legislature would add a fee for those who drive electric cars.
The sticking point is that drivers who use electric vehicles don’t pay into the gas tax, and lawmakers are working to recoup that money somehow.
Senate Bill 28 proposes two things: Adding an extra license fee in 2024 for electric vehicles and adding an extra license fee for plug-in hybrids starting in 2024.
Annually, it would cost electric vehicle owners $200 and is proposed to go up to $250 by 2029. Plug-in hybrid owners would pay an extra $50 license tax.
The legislation comes from local lawmaker Ed Hooper of Clearwater, the chairman of the Senate Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development Appropriation Committee.
The new fees would be in addition to regular registration fees.
Lawmakers will return for the legislative session beginning Jan. 9. In 2023, the Senate approved a similar bill, but the House leaders never pursued it.
Florida’s gas tax is used for multiple projects regarding transportation.
According to the 2023 version of the bill, senate leaders estimate the gas tax funding could decrease between 5.6% to 20% by 2040 due to an increase in the use of electric vehicles.
According to that same analysis, 31 states impose some form of registration fee on electric vehicles.
The bill’s sponsors say this change is needed so that electric vehicle owners pay their fair share for highway improvements.
Opponents argue that moving forward with a new tax would stifle innovative advancements at a time when they are just beginning to gain traction.
The total number of plug-in electric vehicles sold each year in the U.S. has increased every year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Sales in 2022 reached their highest ever at an estimated 800,000 in the U.S. alone, including more than 370,000 electric vehicles sold during the first six months of 2022.
For comparison, roughly 320,000 plug-in electric vehicles were sold in all of 2019.
The National Conference of State Legislatures also analyzed how special registration fees for EVs vary from state to state.
Annual fees for EVs range from $50 in Colorado, South Dakota and Hawaii to $225 in Washington.
Alabama, Arkansas, Ohio and Wyoming all enacted bills in 2019 setting or increasing fees for electric vehicles to $200 annually.
The fees for hybrid vehicles range from $48.75 in Iowa as of 2021 to $100 in Alabama, Arkansas, Ohio and West Virginia.
South Carolina takes a different approach. Instead of an annual fee, a payment of $120 every two years is required for all EVs and $60 for plug-in hybrid vehicles.
