HARRISBURG, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — A bipartisan bill that would charge owners of electric vehicles an annual fee as part of their car registration to make up for a reduction in gas tax revenue is nearing completion in the Pennsylvania legislature.
The electric vehicle fee is designed to make sure electric vehicle owners are paying their fair share for upkeep of roads and bridges.
The chair of the Pennsylvania House Transportation Committee, Philadelphia Democrat Ed Nielsen, calls the legislation “a product of a long road — no pun intended. We've been trying to get a fair EV fee for years around this capitol.”
The legislation would repeal the alternative fuel tax, which all EV owners are supposed to pay but most are unaware of, and replace it with an annual fee to be paid when registering the vehicle.
Under the legislation, owners of fully electric vehicles would pay $200 when they register their car in 2025. In 2026, the fee would rise to $250. Plug-in hybrid vehicle owners would pay $50 in 2025, with the fee also increasing in 2026. After that, the fees would be tied to the consumer price index.
The bill passed the House with significant bipartisan support, 190-12.
One of the “no” votes came from Central Pennsylvania Republican Dan Moul.
“To charge that young person that doesn't drive very many miles. The same as someone like myself that puts on 25- to 30,000 miles a year is unfair,” Moul said.
Delaware County Democrat Greg Vitali also voted against the bill.
“This is the wrong direction to go,” Vitali said. “We ought to be encouraging those of us who want to do the right thing by having all the societal benefits of EVs — not discouraging it by putting one of the highest EV fees in the country on.”
Chester County Republican Craig Williams says the bill isn’t perfect — “but it is the best solution we've had now in three or four years about making electric vehicles pay their fair share of our infrastructure, which right now is grossly deflated.”
Now the bill has passed both chambers: The Senate passed the bill last month 41-9. It goes back to the Senate for a final stamp of approval before heading to Gov. Josh Shapiro to sign.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misstated the fee structure for electric vehicles in 2025 and 2026. The article has been edited to reflect the correction.