Annual Road Fee for EV Owners in the Works

Those who were hoping that the arrival of the electric vehicles will diminish the strain on their pockets (because, as you know, even if the EVs are still more expensive than most models, the operating costs are significantly lower) received a hard blow this week, after news of an annual road tax being in the works in Washigton broke.

Starting from the assumption that EVs use the same roads as every other vehicle, State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen and the group she leads forwarded a new piece of legislation which would require EV owners in the state of Washington to pay an annual fee of $100.

According to the provisions of the legislation, the fee is to be paid by the owners each year when registering their vehicles. The group who worked on the legislation started from the assumption that the $100 fee would be the equivalent of the $100 in state gas taxes paid by everybody else after buying 266 gallons of fuel (good for some 6,666 miles, the average travel distance in a year for Washingtonians).

According to Auto Observer, those who oppose the legislation say that, in order to be approved, the bill must earn two-thirds of the votes in the House and Senate. This is because, opponents say, the sum is not a fee, but a tax, meaning it means special approval.

If approved, the new legislation is hoped to bring $1.9 million to the state budget by 2015-2017. Washington might become the first state to approve such a fee/tax, with more likely to follow in light of the projected EV success.