Electric car owners in Vermont recently received a letter from the Department of Motor Vehicles with some bad news. Starting January 1, they will have to pay $ 178 a year to register their cars, twice as much as owners of vehicle with internal combustion engines.
In setting the highest tariff, Vermont became the last state that made people pay a premium for electricity. At least 39 countries charge such annual tariffs, including $ 50 in Hawaii and $ 200 in Texas, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. This is not from any states a few years ago.
Now, while President Trump revolves the Biden administration measures to promote electric vehicles, the Republicans in Congress are thinking of imposing a national tariff to strengthen the fund used to fund roads and bridges, a fund that is in heavy form.
Tariffs are an attempt to compensate for the decline in petrol taxes that electric cars, for obvious reasons, do not pay. They are an example of how governments are trying to adapt to technological unrest in the vehicle industry.
Environmentalists and customer groups agree that electric vehicle owners should help to pay the maintenance and construction of the road. But they worry that the Republicans, who control the Congress, would set the tariff at extremely high levels to punish the owners of electric vehicles, who tend to be liberal.
This has already happened in Texas and other countries, said Chris Harto, a high policy analyst in customer reports that focuses on transport and energy.
“EV owners should contribute to paying the roads they use,” he said. But, he added, “in some cases, states are applying fees that are quite punitive to EV drivers, significantly more than what the owner of a gas vehicle would pay.”
Flat tariffs are also unfair to low -income drivers or people who do not drive a lot, making it even harder for them to buy less polluting cars. Design and others. Federal and state taxes on gasoline and oil imposed on Gallon, so that people who run the most – or own gas chef – automatically pay more.
The main reason that fuel tax revenues have fallen is that internal combustion engines have become much more efficient, while political leaders do not want to increase fuel taxes to continue with inflation.
The 18.4 cent federal petrol tax on Gallon has not increased since 1993. The highway trust fund, which finances transport projects from that tax revenue, can be disabled by 2027 without new resources of funding , say analysts. A list of tax policies and expenses that Republicans in Congress are considering includes setting fees for electric vehicles to help recharge the highway trust fund.
There are 5.4 million electric vehicles on US roads, according to the Alliance for Vehicle Innovation, an industry group. But this is approximately 2 percent of the total and not the leading cause of the income gaps.
“Lawmakers are finding a suitable redemption and penalizing the cleanest vehicles on the road while ignoring the true cause of the absence,” said Max Baumhefner, director of electric vehicle infrastructure at the Natural Resources Protection Council.
Some of the highest fees of electric vehicles are in countries that usually choose Republicans, such as Texas, Wyoming and Ohio, all pay $ 200 a year at the top of the regular registration fee.
Robert Nichols, a Senator of the Republican State in Texas who sponsored legislation in 2023 by setting a fee, said the amount was determined by analyzing how much the average owner of a gasoline vehicle pays.
“It’s not an anti-EV thing. We have Tesla right here in Texas and we are very proud, “he said, referring to the manufacturer of electric cars, which has his headquarters and a plant in Austin.” But everyone has to pay the road. “
Texas is one of the countries separated from consumer reports to overload electric drivers. The organization quotes a relatively low Texas gas tax of 20 cents a gallon, much below the national average of about 50 cents.
Mr. Nichols acknowledged that lawmakers were ready to raise taxes on gasoline car drivers. “No one wants it in their tombstone:” Raised the gas tax, “he said.
But the increasingly electric vehicle tariffs are not just a phenomenon of the Red State. Washington, who loads $ 150, is as progressive as any blue state. And in Vermont, lawmakers adopted a tariff law last year because they were concerned that the growing number of electric vehicles posed a risk to state finances, said Patrick Murphy, director of state policy at Vermont Transport Agency.
“The legislators admitted that we are approaching the checkpoint where EV approval has become the main course in Vermont,” he said.
Electric vehicles made up 12 percent of new car sales in Vermont last year, above the national average of 8 percent. Mr. Murphy noted that the tariffs collected by electric vehicle owners are assigned to infrastructure as loaders. With $ 89 a year on standard registration fee, Vermont fee is also at the low end of what states load.
People from both sides of the debate agree that a fairer system would charge the owners of electric vehicles for run miles. But making this is complicated. Some states are experimenting with technology that tracks mileage and bill owners accordingly. But the systems are expensive and increase issues of intimacy.
A flat fee is “not perfect”, admitted Mr. Nichols, Texas lawmaker. “But that makes a big step forward. It is right without putting a big bureaucracy.”
Some states, including Iowa, Georgia and Kentucky, charges of electric tax vehicles. But that system lacks a lot of cars. Most people load home, using public charges only occasionally.
States that do not charge electric cars Higher tariffs include Alaska, Arizona, New York and Massachusetts, under the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In 2026, Vermont plans to be among the first states to try to charge the owners of electric vehicles based on what they drive.
This will be relatively easy in Vermont, said Mr. Murphy, because officials already collect Odometr readings when owners bring their cars for annual security checks. This is not the case in many states.
Even a system that traces mileage has drawbacks. It taxes the owners for travel to other countries and does not collect income from visitors abroad.
“All the approach we have had is to keep things as simple as possible at first, to get something in place where all vehicles are paying something for our infrastructure,” Mr. Murphy, “and then evolve over time to do constantly is a fairer system.”
