HOUSTON – Texans, if you own an electric vehicle, you’ll need to fork over some extra cash when you renew your registration.
The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles announced on Tuesday that starting Sept. 1, those who own an electric vehicle (EV) in the state must pay an additional $200. This is on top of the usual $50.75 plus tax for most passenger vehicles.
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Texans who purchase a new electric vehicle must pay $400 for the initial two-year registration period.
The additional fees do not apply to hybrid vehicles.
How did this law happen?
According to several reports, lawmakers tried to find several ways to make up for the lack of gasoline tax payments by electric vehicle drivers.
In May, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 505, which establishes a $400 fee to register an electric vehicle in Texas, as reported by NBC Affiliate KXAN. The bill was unanimously approved in March by the State Senate and later approved in the House.
Sen. Robert Nichols, who authored the bill, told KXAN that the law was aimed to make sure EV owners “pay their fair share” of state highway funding.
“We recognized some time ago that each time an all-electric vehicle does get on the road and displaces a gasoline or diesel vehicle that the state highway fund loses money,” Nichols tells KXAN in March. “So the object here is to try to identify how much money do we lose on both state and federal and try to make that up with a fee adjustment.”
The Austin American-Statesman reported in May that two dozen states pay a similar fee for electric vehicles, including California. However, the average cost that electric vehicle drivers paid was $119.54.