PHOENIX – The free ride for owners of electric vehicles in Arizona could soon be coming to an end.
Members of the House Committee on Transportation and Technology have approved a plan to impose a new $135 annual registration fee on every vehicle that is incapable of operating on gasoline or diesel.
The biggest category is those needing plug-in electrics. And the most recent figures from the state Department of Transportation show there were 80,613 of them.
That would generate nearly $11 million a year for the fund that is used to maintain roads and build new ones.
It would offset the fact that the owners of these vehicles do not pay the 18-cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline, the proceeds of which go into that same fund.
There is some mathematical basis for the registration figure chosen by Rep. David Cook for these alternate fuel vehicles.
Assuming a typical motorist drives about 15,000 miles a year in a vehicle that gets 20 miles to the gallon, that means they would buy about 750 gallons of gas. Factor in the 18-cent gas tax and it comes out to $135.