Posted on 06/05/2024 10:51:19 AM PDT by Red Badger
Saying electric and hybrid vehicles need to pay their own way for the wear and tear they put on Wyoming roads, legislators are resurrecting a bill to tax fast-charging stations.
The Wyoming Legislature wants electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle users to pay their fair share, and for the second straight year is considering a fuel tax for EV owners fueling up at high-speed charging stations in the state.
The tax of 4 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) would only apply to Level 3 DC fast chargers, such as the Tesla Supercharger stations. It would not include Level 2 public charging facilities, lesser-power 240-volt stations that are more common in homes, restaurants, hotels, workplaces and other public locations such as malls and parking garages.
According to finance website The Motley Fuel, the average cost to recharge at a Tesla station is typically about $0.25 per kWh, meaning a full recharge to 250 miles is about $22. A 4-cent tax would add around $3.52 to this charge.
Lost Costs EV drivers now pay no state fuel tax, the largest source of revenue the Wyoming Department of Revenue taps into for maintaining roads.
The Wyoming Department of Transportation depends on liquid fuel taxes to support its operations and road maintenance, which means that electric vehicles aren’t supporting the roads they use through any taxes on gasoline.
Electric vehicle owners do, however, pay a $200 registration fee in lieu of those taxes.
As written, the bill continues to charge electric vehicles a $200 licensing fee and establishes a new, $100 licensing fee for plug-in hybrids.
The problem for Wyoming with these licenses is that it still fails to capture out-of-state EV drivers who put wear and tear on state roads without compensating the state for the wear and tear they put on them.
Jonathan Russell, a policy analyst for the Wyoming County Commissioners Association, expressed concern that if these vehicles continue to not pay their fair share for these impacts, local governments will be hit hardest. The fuel tax generates big money for Wyoming’s counties, $3 million per year in Sweetwater alone.
A draft bill proposed last summer would have included Level 2 charging stations in the tax, which would have required the addition of six WYDOT employees to manage. This was eventually removed from the bill.
Level 2 chargers are a step up from a standard residential plug but are slower to charge than the Level 3 DC fast chargers, such as the Supercharger stations.
Many other states charge a similar tax on EV vehicles.
“Everybody’s trying to figure out the right way to do this, there’s just a lot of definitions to ‘the right way,’” said Wayne Hassinger, Fuel Tax Administration Program manager for WYDOT.
The Right Way The draft bill is very similar to a bill that was proposed during the 2024 legislative session, which fell three votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed for introduction in the House.
According to the Alliance For Automotive Innovation, EVs accounted for 2.1% of all new vehicle sales in Wyoming in 2023, ranking 47th in the country. The group supports the proposed tax, as does state Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, who works in the electric charger industry.
Hassinger said EV use continues to grow in Wyoming, with the quantity of charging stations rapidly increasing as well. He believes tourists traveling in EVs will always make up most of the tax revenue drawn in Wyoming from this mode of transportation.
Although there were only 800 electric vehicles registered in Wyoming in 2022, Sublette County Treasurer Emily Paravicini said by 2023 there were 833 electric hybrid vehicles registered in Teton County alone. Every county in Wyoming that tracks the vehicles has them.
“As the number of those hybrid vehicles goes up and up, the tax dollars that are coming back to the state to pay for roads and Highway Patrol and all the ways WYDOT uses those funds are diminishing,” she said.
If this trend continues, there will be more road damage caused to Wyoming roads than currently created by standard gas cars.
Paravicini said EVs tend to weigh 750 pounds heavier than an average gas engine car because of the electric vehicle’s battery, which can weigh as much as 2,000 pounds alone. Hassinger mentioned how a Ford F-150 Lighting truck weighs 1,030 pounds more than its gas-powered counterpart.
The vehicles also pose more risks in car accidents, as the batteries can often cause fires.
“There’s definitely more costs associated with these vehicles with these batteries,” Paravicini said.
Other Possibilities As written, the proposed EV fuel tax would not be exempt from the sales tax, so a buyer would have to pay both taxes on top of the cost of the electricity spent. This would differ from the current 24 cents-per-gallon fuel tax, which is the only tax a buyer pays for on top of the cost of gas.
Bret Fanning, a staffer with the Wyoming Department of Revenue, said there are other examples of double taxation in the Wyoming tax code, mentioning how tobacco products are subject to both a sales tax and tobacco tax.
Yin proposed extending the same sales tax exemption to EVs.
“That would create that consistency across both,” he said.
The intention of the new tax would be to focus on the electricity put into a car, not the running of the charging facility itself. Operators of the charging stations would deliver the 4 cents collected per kWh sold to the state.
But Sen. John Kolb, R-Rock Springs, said he wants to know how much it would cost a charging station to run the chargers to see if they should be subject to a separate tax as well.
“Is it worth it to try and go down that road or do we just say the charging station consumes so many kilowatts of power and that’s what their fee is based on?” he questioned.
The committee will consider the bill further at its next meeting in September.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
First I’ve heard of it and it sounds fair enough. The Tesla drivers on I-80 need to pay their share just like everyone else does.
Excellent.
Now, do bicyclists using roads.
Yes, EVs are HEAVIER and therefor tear up roads faster than normal autos.........
Same could be said for Nat Gas vehicles, but they are relatively few..............
YES!
Let all the smug do-gooders who think they know best be taxed at the charging stations.
A one-time purchase tax on bicycles should cover any wear and tear they cause...........
Texas charges $200 per year extra for EVs and $400 for the first registration.
Gas tax in Texas is 20 cents per gallon.
“On average, Americans drive 14,263 miles per year according to the Federal Highway Administration.”
Fleet average mpg is 25mpg.
14263/25=570 gal
570*25=$114 per year on average.
I have short term leased both a Camry hybrid and a Prius. The Camry hybrid was getting 56 in the city and 52 on the motorways at 85mph. The Prius say as high as 78 mpg over a ten mile grid lock trip a d avg 60 city and 58 motorway. So gas hybrids would be under $50 per year in gas taxes vs $200 flat for an EV.
For the EV driver to pay the same as a 25mpg driver they would have to cover 25,000 miles not 14260. So the EV driver is getting taxed more in Texas than the average person who drives a 25mpg vehicle. Most cars gets higher than the fleet avg its the suburban truck bro bros who are getting 18mpg in those trucks that have never seen a worksite let alone mud on the way to those office jobs and back to the burbs. I only use my F250 powerstroke for hauling or off-road duty so it’s fuel use and tax is minimal or billed directly to the client and written off.
From Google AI:
As of February 2024, Alaska, Arizona, Montana, Nevada, and New Mexico are some states that don’t charge more to register electric vehicles (EVs). However, 24 states have implemented policies to impose additional registration fees for EVs and some fuel-efficient plug-in hybrid vehicles in response to a decline in gas tax collections. Additionally, at least seven states, including Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Utah, have passed taxes on EV charging.
“Yes, EVs are HEAVIER and therefor tear up roads faster than normal autos.........”
Not always. My Tesla model 3 is 100lbs lighter than the S60 Volvo sitting next to it in the stable. They are within one inch of each other’s footprint shadow based on length and width. The Model 3 has a higher level of luxury as well based on tech features both are leather interiors.
The S60 is a T5 AWD and the Model 3 is the LR version on lease. Both ride on identical 245/18 tires in this case P4 Pirelli the Model 3 would do less wear being lighter on the same tire footprint. Google has the curb weights of each for those wanting to look. I can tell you the Model 3 is much more nimble and with 450hp eats the T5 lunch in acceleration. The FSD is worth every penny it’s a game changer in traffic and also on the motorways. A starlink dish is the next addition for broadband everywhere the Tesla already has 5G to Wi-Fi built in but that coverage gets spotty in West Texas. Starlink will solve that. Netflix and let the FSD drive or do billable hours while letting the FSD drive.
Damn Right!
I remember reading that cars do very little damage to roads and that trucks do almost all the damage.
I agree that if gas cars pay tax through their gas taxes them EVs should pay a similar amount. Taxing all vehicles according to their damage seems fair, but I’d beware of giving the government any excuse to adjust tax laws. I don’t trust them at all.
Alabama does the same. Seems fair to me.
This article's proposal for the state of WY might fly better with local voters. Putting the tax on Level 3 chargers = putting the tax on out of towners driving through the state (for the most part). Just about everybody in every state whishes they could put more taxes on the visitors than on the local residents.
I’d like to a study to determine if the insurance companies are spreading the pain around to their customers. Given how easily EVs can be totaled from a minor accident or flooded during a storm/hurricane, can’t imagine what those premiums would be.
Possibly paying rates on the cheap Tesla as if you were rolling around in full size Benz or macdaddy Porsche
These same smug do-gooders are the very first to scream “The rich need to pay their ‘fair share.’ The corporations need to pay their ‘fair share’!”
But they are the very first to skip out on paying their own “fair share” for their EV wear and tear on the roads.
There’s no hypocrite like a Democrat do-gooder hypocrite.
https://www.insidescience.org/news/how-much-damage-do-heavy-trucks-do-our-roads
Trucks are virtually the only damages done. And your tax contribution via gas taxes is not even a fraction of the total expenditure. $114 vs $700+ in today’s money per capita. Given that not everyone drives that number per driver is 3 times higher given 100 million drivers vs 330 million people in the USA. The EU taxes based on MAM maximum allowable mass this is why you don’t see pick-up trucks being driven as commuter cars. That and you need a class C1 or above operators licence to drive any truck with trailer over 750kg or MAM over 3500kg that’s an F150 sized truck. C licences require sponsorship by an employer in most EU countries. So no truck bro bros you have to have a legitimate need for a truck and they tax out the nose by the Kg and also by the individual horsepower monthly for insurance coverage.
4 cents per kWh is one cent per mile in a model 3 sized EV. I am getting 180 to 220 wh per mile at 75mph and the A.C. Ripping that’s equal to gas tax at 20 cents per gallon at 20mpg so it’s still higher than the fleet avg mpg tax rate at 25mpg and with a hybrid like a full sized Camry getting 50+ mpg hwy half as much for the hybrid. Still most people only supercharger on road trips so it’s a tiny fraction of the opex per year in a EV that home charges. This is why Texas went to a flat yearly tax to tax the home chargers which in Texas is at a higher rate than the avg ICE driver is paying at that.
To be totally honest, Teslas are NOT FSD, they are effectively Level 2 Autonomy (Partial Automation) or possibly Level 3 (Conditional Automation).
True FSD would be Level 5 (Full Driving Automation).
In response to lawsuits (all settled out of court, as far as I know), Tesla was forced to start using the term “Full Safe Driving Supervised” because of idiots who believed Tesla’s hype and got themselves into trouble. Pressure from the NHTSA also came into play.
RTFM applies here, something very few actually do.
https://www.synopsys.com/automotive/autonomous-driving-levels.html
A tax must be annual on bicycles… can be handled by paying for an annual license.
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