Texas Might Start Charging Electric Car Owners for Driving Electric Cars

If you have an electric vehicle in the state of Texas, you might want to pay attention to this. Texas senators are currently working on a bill that would charge electric vehicle drivers between $200 and $400 a year for their car. That would be the standard rate. If you drive over 9000 miles in a year, you could be charged AN EXTRA $190 or more.

Why is this increase being discussed? The gas tax is slowly fading into oblivion and becoming obsolete. You might not know this but you are charged extra on your gas purchases in order to maintain the roads that you use with your car. In order to counteract electric cars taking away from the amount of money being made on the gas tax, State Bill 1728 is designed to charge electric car owners/drivers for their cars. State Bill 1728...

would raise fees on electric vehicle (EV) owners as a way to make up for the gas tax they're not paying. The legislation would require an annual EV fee of between $190 and $240, an additional fee of over $150 for anyone who drives their EV more than 9000 miles a year, and an annual surcharge of $10 to fund a charging infrastructure advisory council.

It makes sense that we need to be charged in order to maintain the roads. However, this bill might be a bit steep when it comes to the fees attached to electric vehicles. CLICK HERE to see an article Plug In America put together about electric vehicle ownership. They claim the actual fee should be closer to $73 per year, rather than the steep fees being proposed. They added that having such a steep fee to drive an electric vehicle would actually deter people from owning an electric vehicle.