Iowa House votes to add fee for electric vehicle registration

In Nebraska, the fee (which did not start in 2011 but is pending approval with LB 366) is for full EV only, without a partial fee for PHEV. When I was at the legislature, I mentioned that this loophole should be closed. But, as a PHEV owner, I save a few bucks there. Assuming 12K miles a year and 50% EV (and almost all the EV in the state since I can't go far on a single charge).

Operating on gas at conservative 50 mpg and $2.25/gal, that's 6,000 / 50 * $2.25 = $270, of which $32.76 is state tax at $0.273/gal. To put a wrinkle on this, for a long trip (say 3K miles), I'll typically fill up at home to start and again when I get home. So, for a trip east, since I'm near the eastern border of Nebraks, about 1,000 of those miles are not driven in this state, but taxes are paid in this state. The other states get the taxes on the other 2K miles.

Operating on electric at conservative 4.5 mile/KWh (yearly average) and yearly average electric marginal at my home of 7.5 cents/KWh with taxes, that's 6000 / 4.5 * 0.075 = $100. A savings to me of $170/year using electric, and the state loses $33 in gas taxes. So, a fee of $37.50 /year for PHEV seems reasonable to me. Note that Wisconsin has no registration fee for PHEV either, just BEV and Zero Emissions. So their PHEVs get a similar good deal.

Note that there is a federal excise tax on gas of 18.4 cents/gal. That is also saved when I or anybody else charges at home.

 

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I’ve quoted that site many times and it indicated a 33% drop in sales during the EV tax rhetoric of 2017 and now 2 months later has moved its report of combined new/used plug in sales up dramatically for 2018 and removed the first few months of 2019 off the chart altogether


You do need to be VERY careful using its data for any meaningful discourse since it does not differentiate PHEV sales from BEV sales and it counts SALES in general be it new, leased or used,
For example
if I buy a car and sell it in the same year it would count as 2 sales for one car.

The only real metric is the number of registered EVs on the road which is harder to get but indications are that EVs aren’t selling while PHEVs still do, at least in Wisconsin and that follows the implementation failure of the PHEV tax which is in some form of mediation at the moment

 

No, because EV's are registered at the local level and electricity is sold at the local level. At some point, the Federal government is going to have to fund roads through a method other than gasoline taxes. I anticipate that in the next 10 years there will be a miles-driven fee for road use, and the Federal government will get a cut of that. That is going to be the only accurate way to track road usage, and once the privacy issues are resolved I think that's what will be in place.

Over the road truck drivers already pay their fuel taxes this way. They log all the miles driven in each state and pay taxes proportionally. This fixes the problem of trucks buying fuel in less expensive states and then driving through the more expensive states without buying fuel there and paying taxes. The program is IFTA. If you drive a lot of miles in state X but don't buy a commensurate amount of fuel there, you owe state X the missing tax. In return, you get a refund from the states where you bought a lot of fuel and didn't drive there much.

 

$100 sway sales, seriously? Oh, I do not know, may be, just maybe, people find EVs with their limited range or more than modest capacity not suitable for their needs, esp. when it's supposed to be a primary (= often only) vehicle?

 

I would think this is easier to get. The state has all the registration records.
Wisconsin DMV Official Government Site - Lists of vehicle information

Of note, if a $100 annual fee is killing your EV market, why isn't this same economic phenomenon seen in all the other states that have registration fees for EVs?

What is the basis for this projection of downward registration?

 

The state does not properly track plug ins as of this date.

So If it is easy by all means prove it by getting by fuel type lists that differentiate between PHEV and BEV.
It would be interesting to see how many hundred more BEVs there are today instead of going by the wink wink from a screen left on.

Anyway
Late 2017 there were 2300 BEVs,
Mr Fitzgerald was claiming 25,000 sold

Ben Nelson had to place a freedom of information act request to get the actual data then the rhetoric fell flat but Fitzgerald was never held to the iron for lying about the magnitude of the funding from this tax.


Reviewing that link today it’s quite interesting that overall registrations for all vehicle types has fallen into the 6 million range, this shows the effects of increasingly restrictive local ordinances, increasing registration costs and new wheel tax efforts. I wonder if that was what they were going for?

Thanks for the link I haven’t looked there in years

 

Are you saying your taxes on electricity are 6 cents/Kwh, or is the tax 6% of the bill? What is your incremental billed rate for your last KWh each month - that's what is going into your EV. What taxes are shown on your bill?

 

His tax is the same as mine, and it’s applied to the total amount, (yes I pay tax on top of the low income fee)
only difference is mine is 5.5% and his 6%
Wisconsin also doesn’t apply sales tax to everyone. Only specific circumstances.

Michigan it appears gets everyone

 

You can be certain that if there is a fee on BEV's, they are very accurately tracked. PHEV's are typically registered as hybrids in states that don't have a separate fee structure for them. There is no compelling reason to track them as plug-ins otherwise. If legislation passes to include a fee on them, at next registration they will be re-classified to the appropriate category.

 

So the tax is 6% of the bill, not 6 cents/Kwh. Big difference. Assuming 15 cents/KWh (at the high range from what I see in the rate structure), and you would pay 1500 * 0.15 = $225 for 1500 KWhr. 6% tax on $225 adds another $13.5. Not close to $90.

Sales taxes on electricity are common, and probably used nationwide. Here in Nebraska it's 7.5%.

 

I’ve made it two years without paying the fee while Milwaukee BEVs got the tax immediately after the budget passed.

As I stated the DMV needed system upgrades to implement which they have not gotten funded, there is also a legal issue that a 1980’s addition to the state constitution bans additional taxes on alternative fuel vehicles.

I also have skirted added wheel tax on my truck, it pays nothing but my cars/motorcycle gets wheel tax

 

Wheel taxes are applied uniformly across vehicles, regardless of fuel type? If so, they aren't a factor in a discussion of EV-specific fees.

 

I think you will find this is a fee, not a tax.

 

Wisconsin has a ban on wheel tax on alternative fuel vehicles

The way it was explained to me is that although the wording has a list of taxes that may not be charged to alternative fuel vehicles that it was intended to block the county from charging so the state level could,
odd part again is that trucks generally don’t pay wheel tax but cars do including “alternative fuel” ones.

Not complaining my truck is exempt from wheel tax.

 

Where is that in your law? According to the state DOT website, only certain special plates are exempt, and alternative fuel vehicles don't appear to get special plates.

 

It’s the lowest most terrible tax and should be banned.

Historically it was mainly for multi axle vehicles and added a charge per wheel, in my county they do not charge farm, semis or pickups and only charge cars and motorcycles, completely backwards