Illinois Residents May Have to Pay $1,000 per Year to Own an EV

Tsing

The FPS Review
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The cost of owning an electric vehicle in Illinois may be going way, way up in Illinois. State Senator Martin Sandoval has proposed a bill that would increase the annual registration fee for owning an EV in the state from $17.50 to $1,000. It’s part of the state’s plan for collecting additional funding for improving roads and other infrastructure.

While hybrids and plug-in electric hybrids would be exempt from that hike, the bill also increases fees for standard vehicles from $98 to $148 and the gas tax to 44 cents a gallon. EV owners are presumably getting the raw end of the deal because they haven't been contributing to the state's gas tax revenue.

“Imposing fees on EVs that are over 400 percent more than their gasoline-powered counterparts is not only unfair, it discourages promising new technology that will reduce our dependence on petroleum, reduce emissions, and promote the Illinois economy,” Rivian spokesman Michael McHale said. The legislation, introduced this week by Democratic Sen. Martin Sandoval of Chicago, would raise about $2.4 billion in annual transportation funding, according to its backers.
 
Here in Georgia they implemented that sort of tax on electrics a few years ago. Started at $200 and is indexed for inflation.
 
If this becomes Illinois state law and major upgrades to the electric generating infrastructure aren't completed within 3-10 years, then the Illinois state legislature better be ready for the mass of law firms that will be filing waves of class action lawsuits from EV owners that are being subjected to taxation without representation.
 
It's a stupid law. Its even more ridiculous that you a guy driving his Brodozer on those roads isn't getting unfairly taxed and the light EV that does far less damage to the roads and environments is paying a fee that's hundreds of times greater. But that's government for you.
 
Dan_D said:
It's a stupid law. Its even more ridiculous that you a guy driving his Brodozer on those roads isn't getting unfairly taxed and the light EV that does far less damage to the roads and environments is paying a fee that's hundreds of times greater. But that's government for you.
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But the Brodozer is getting taxed via the fuel tax. The whole point of this tax in GA (and appears to be so in IL) was that electric cars paid $0 in fuel taxes, Brodozers paid ~31 cents per gallon. In that scenario, electrics are using roads they aren't paying for.. so with this annual registration fee for them it attempts to equalize the balance.

Now, you can say that the electrics are paying a disproportionate amount compared to gas powered cars - in GA you'd need to use 645 gallons of gas per year to meet the electric tax, and in this IL example several thousand....
 
David_Schroth said:
But the Brodozer is getting taxed via the fuel tax. The whole point of this tax in GA (and appears to be so in IL) was that electric cars paid $0 in fuel taxes, Brodozers paid ~31 cents per gallon. In that scenario, electrics are using roads they aren't paying for.. so with this annual registration fee for them it attempts to equalize the balance.

Now, you can say that the electrics are paying a disproportionate amount compared to gas powered cars - in GA you'd need to use 645 gallons of gas per year to meet the electric tax, and in this IL example several thousand....
Click to expand...

That's supposed to be what the annual registration and *use* tax is for. But now that the use tax is being exponentially increased, this just pushes environmentally friendly EVs out of the grasp of everyone except the very-well-to-do. It's punishing the lower and middle classes.
 
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