Bummer: EV Owners To Pay Much Higher Registration Fees In Pennsylvania

The state has joined the growing number who are hitting EVs up for the lost gas tax revenue

Pa.’s electric vehicle owners soon will have to pay fees of $200+ per year

A bill that would establish a new annual fee for owners of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles to offset the loss of gas tax revenue on those vehicles is headed to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk.

The new fee, which Shapiro is expected to enact, is seen as a way to re-level that part of the highway construction funding effort that has traditionally fallen on drivers paying state and federal taxes at the gas pump. EV drivers avoid that tax.

“Everyone who uses Pennsylvania roads should have to pay their part to help keep our roads safe and our bridges in top shape,” House Transportation Committee Chairman Ed Neilson, a Democrat from Philadelphia, said Wednesday.

The new fees, which passed the state Senate on an overwhelming bipartisan vote Thursday, would be set at $200 for 2025, and jump to $250 in 2026. Every year after that, the fee would be reset based on the prior year’s consumer price index.

In North Carolina it is just under $40 to register my Civic. Any EV is now $180. In fairness, they’ll still save money on gas, but, of course, they’re still paying for electricity, plus the use of their time while waiting to charge.

One of those opponents, Rep. Greg Vitali, D-Delaware County, argued the fee undermines one of the savings that helps encourage people to consider buying electric cars and trucks at a time when the battle against climate change needs more recruits faster than ever.

Gas tax savings, Vitali said, are a reward that they’ve earned.

Ah, but, then how do we pay for roads and road repair? That’s what gas taxes are supposed to be for, along with things like property taxes and registration fees. EVs are considerably worse for roads due to their weight, wearing roads out quicker. We’ve seen this before, when the Obama regimes drastically increased CAFE standards, meaning there were more hybrids on the road and vehicles were getting better fuel economy, but, that mean a reduced revenue intake from gas taxes. So, governments had to get creative to recoup that “loss”. Government created fix created a government created problem that required sucking more money from citizens.

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