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Featured Colorado "electric vehicle" $50 registration fee

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by beef jiggles, Jul 10, 2022.

  1. beef jiggles

    beef jiggles Member

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    I just registered my third Prius I have owned. I never really looked at the registration fees until this last one...

    Wth? The state's website indicates that the $50 fee applies to "plug in electric vehicles". My 2006 Prius is far from a plug in electric vehicle. The DMV said their system charges based on the VIN number... this makes no sense to me. Has anyone else dug into this?


    Vehicle Registration | Colorado General Assembly


    Screen Shot 2022-07-10 at 3.31.24 PM.png


    I tried to find the lawyer jargon verbiage in CRS 42-3-304 and could not locate it... Only found references to the $50 fee going towards special license plates for electric vehicles (which are supposed to be provided when you pay the fee) and then some kind of BS sticker for the window. I received NEITHER of these.

    Colorado is basically forcing people to advertise that they have an electric vehicle. That is all I could gather.

    Mainly pissed because MY CAR IS NOT A PLUG IN ELECTRIC VEHICLE.
     
  2. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    You'll probably have to contact your local congress critter.
     
  3. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    It's even worse in Washington state... A few years back some idiot repugnaton tacked on a last minute edition to a transportation bill that added a $75 hybrid vehicle tax to make sure to punish anyone who gets better gas mileage than regular cars and then then they gaslit us and told us it was to incentivise electric cars. Such ridiculous BS!!! Washington state is charging hybrid owners $75 to incentivize electric cars
     
  4. prius16

    prius16 Active Member

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    Seems like a mistake.
    Maybe get something from ?Toyota, or carfax?, and go to your local DMV.


    Below is what I found:

    Code:
    See section 24 and 25 near the end:
    Colorado Revised Statutes Title 42. Vehicles and Traffic § 42-3-304. Registration fees--passenger and passenger-mile taxes--clean screen fund--definitions
    https://codes.findlaw.com/co/title-42-vehicles-and-traffic/co-rev-st-sect-42-3-304.html
    
    
    Also:
    26 U.S. Code § 30D - New qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicles
    https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/30D
    

    Good Luck.
     
  5. Morley

    Morley New Member

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    Ii just got off the phone with colorado DMV... Apaprently someone goofed programming this in their system and it was just recently discovered. Hybrids were NOT supposed to be charged this $50 fee and they tell me I will receive a refund for it. SO...here's hoping!
     
  6. beef jiggles

    beef jiggles Member

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    That is good to hear. The Tremont DMV downtown basically said "get lost"... "call the dept of treasury".

    I wasn't even rude about it when I asked.

    Maybe the email I sent to Leslie Herod made a difference.
     
  7. swavescatter

    swavescatter Junior Member

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    Ultimately, mileage tax or annual fees will be needed as electric cars don’t pay their share of road maintenance via gas tax.

    Wear and tear on roads are a function of vehicle weight and mileage driven. We need to move towards a system that recognizes that.
     
  8. beef jiggles

    beef jiggles Member

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    Everything costs money but some things destroy the world at a slower rate. The best time to own an electric car is now before they make it more expensive.
     
  9. bat4255

    bat4255 2017 Prius v #2 and 2008 Gen II #2

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    Wisconsin here, our '08 Prius no additional reg fee. Our '17, add $75 to our reg fee, $165 (I think)
     
  10. 3PriusMike

    3PriusMike Prius owner since 2000, Tesla M3 2018

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    Yes, but the difference between a big SUV and a small sedan is close to zero in road damage when compared to semi trucks. If we want to be realistic we should MORE heavily tax trucking which will get passed on to consumers as higher prices for just about everything we buy.


    Mike
     
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  11. John321

    John321 Senior Member

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    In our state they are considering additional registration taxes on EV's and PHEV's. My input to our Representative was that these new fees if passed should only be applied to Electric Vehicles and PHEV's bought after the legislation was passed. They should not be levying additional taxes on vehicles that had been purchased before the legislation was passed.

    The Legislative Bill did not get enough votes to become law and our Legislator voted against it.

    Sometimes we also forget that programs must be paid for, that money doesn't just appear out of thin air. Programs like the ones listed in the link below could be the reason for additional taxes. The money has to come from somewhere-the government (both State and Federal) only has money available that they have taken from others:

    Colorado Will Pay $6,000 Toward Your Plug-In Conversion | PriusChat

    Colorado launches Hybrid Electric snowplow! It uses 50% less fuel. video. | PriusChat

    Limited Time Offer: $42,083 Off on Tesla Roadster in Colorado Until Dec. 31st | PriusChat
     
    #11 John321, Jul 15, 2022
    Last edited: Jul 15, 2022
  12. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    My registration just showed up and it's now at $200 in Washington state. My local city added a $40 fee and also got dinged $10 for "heavy vehicle" fee and looked it up and it's not listed. First fee based on vehicle weight is for over 4K pounds and starts at $25 and goes higher as vehicle weight goes higher. What a bunch of weasels to add $10 fee for a vehicle that weighs a little under 3K pounds...
     
  13. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    The annual fees for EVs getting added tend to be punitive when compared to what an ICE car of similar type and annual miles pays in gas taxes.

    Roads are designed for commercial trucks of over 10 tons. The potential wear difference between a BEV and ICE car could literally be washed away with rain.

    Maybe you should call your rep too. Maybe the Prius is being lumped in with the Prius Prime.
     
  14. Rmay635703

    Rmay635703 Senior Member

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    not really

    Below 6000lbs doesn’t cause road damage.

    The only arguments I’ve seen towards private cars paying road tax is due to congestion, paying for pollution or paying your “fair share” to subsidize freight and the roads they travel on as a common good.

    The reality is if we want to keep things from becoming regressive we should keep fees relatively small on private citizens and continue to keep road funding coming from the general funds as roads are a common good.

    AKA 50% of road funding comes out of the general fund, road specific taxes actually have not paid for most roads in over 25 years.

    If a traffic deterrent is needed tolls and parking fees work

    If we want “energy taxes” and expensive tracking
    even the most ancient EVs like the leaf and Volt reported kwhr use back to big brother, peg it to the gas tax so nobody is screwed.


    something worth noting is that municipal substation taxes make up 10-50% of everyones electric bill, this is a higher rate than most gas taxes, do we really need new taxes that will cost billions to collect?
     
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  15. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    If we had true cost accounting for how much it costs in long term damage to our planet for fossil fool based cars nobody would be able to afford them and electric vehicles would be the only option.
     
  16. El Dobro

    El Dobro A Member

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    One of our legislators proposed a bill, charging EVs by the mile and was pretty much told to sit down and shut up, since the state is trying to promote EVs.
     
  17. Rmay635703

    Rmay635703 Senior Member

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    I wish they were all that way.

    Some states still remain at under 1% or in the case of my state not anywhere near that. In 10 years we have only added 3,000 plug ins.

    In areas like mine keeping the incentive of normal registration until infrastructure, price, insurance and other metrics catch up is the minimum they could do .
    Our plug in adoption rates stalled for a decade due to the state changing insurance requirements and adding a large title increase with a smaller registration jump.

    BE102C12-97D6-4C0C-87DE-D51900C5CFF7.jpeg
     
  18. These people... (n) we truly need a real facepalm emoji
     
  19. Isaac Zachary

    Isaac Zachary Senior Member

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    I remember getting the sticker to go on my Leaf. I thought it was to let people know I could park at an EV charging parking spot.

    I didn't know that I was getting charged more for the plates. This was the most expensive car I had ever owned up to that point, insurance went from $50 to $180 and a $9,000, 5-year loan, so I just figured the more expensive plates were part of the regular taxes or something.
     
  20. RRxing

    RRxing Senior Member

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    I'm a little late to the party, but here's what the statute says...

    Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 7.19.19 PM.png