PA Enacts separate EV Road Tax

[atebit]

I just renewed my registration tonight online. There was a notice that once an EV owner renews their PA registration this year that they will automatically be enrolled in the new EV Road tax program. This will generate a bill that has to be paid by mail via check or money order for $200 (for 2025), though they pledge to have online payments available by August 2026.

I don’t necessarily mind paying road tax since every other driver does. What I do mind is that it’s some arbitrary amount ($200 for 220, $250 for 2026, spin the wheel after that). They ask you at every renewal what the car’s mileage is. So if they need to bring some COBOL programmers out of retirement anyway to make the changes to the DMV systems, they might as well make it equitable/mileage-based vs an arbitrary & regressive tax.

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[SANZC02]

I just renewed my registration tonight online. There was a notice that once an EV owner renews their PA registration this year that they will automatically be enrolled in the new EV Road tax program. This will generate a bill that has to be paid by mail via check or money order for $200 (for 2025), though they pledge to have online payments available by August 2026.

I don’t necessarily mind paying road tax since every other driver does. What I do mind is that it’s some arbitrary amount ($200 for 220, $250 for 2026, spin the wheel after that). They ask you at every renewal what the car’s mileage is. So if they need to bring some COBOL programmers out of retirement anyway to make the changes to the DMV systems, they might as well make it equitable/mileage-based vs an arbitrary & regressive tax.

That is actually not that bad. According to this government site the gas tax in PA for 2025 is 57.6 cents per gallon. That means $200 is about 347 gallons of gas or less than 7k miles at 20 miles per gallon.

The only real issue is non-residents driving through PA are not contributing as they would if purchasing gasoline or diesel.

 

[KingTodd]

Hybrid owners also pay this even though they still purchase gas.
the fee is high and maybe higher than gas which sucks.
im guessing they figure more
Evs and hybrids are coming so get this in place now for a better tax stream.
im ok paying it because i want well funded and good infrastructure. Just would like gas payers to pay more. Maybe if more people go Ev or hybrid it will be easier for them to raise the gas price.

 

[McLovin]

The only real issue is non-residents driving through PA are not contributing as they would if purchasing gasoline or diesel.

Is there not a tax at charging stations?

 

[Zoidz]

i‘m ok with the concept of an EV tax. No matter how they tax it, some win. some lose. Just spitballing, I probably drive 3k to 4k miles a year outside of Pa, so a mileage tax would be unfair to me as a use tax. We also don’t pay the $35 to $50 Emissions Test fee so I consider that financially as an offset to the tax.

 

[bigsky]

I just renewed my registration tonight online. There was a notice that once an EV owner renews their PA registration this year that they will automatically be enrolled in the new EV Road tax program. This will generate a bill that has to be paid by mail via check or money order for $200 (for 2025), though they pledge to have online payments available by August 2026.

I don’t necessarily mind paying road tax since every other driver does. What I do mind is that it’s some arbitrary amount ($200 for 220, $250 for 2026, spin the wheel after that). They ask you at every renewal what the car’s mileage is. So if they need to bring some COBOL programmers out of retirement anyway to make the changes to the DMV systems, they might as well make it equitable/mileage-based vs an arbitrary & regressive tax.

Thank you for identifying the stupidity of these laws.

 

[bigsky]

That is actually not that bad. According to this government site the gas tax in PA for 2025 is 57.6 cents per gallon. That means $200 is about 347 gallons of gas or less than 7k miles at 20 miles per gallon.

The only real issue is non-residents driving through PA are not contributing as they would if purchasing gasoline or diesel.

Any law that sets up a capricious and arbitrary fee pulled out of their you-know-what is very bad. And very unfair.

347 gal. of gas is the energy equivalent for a Rivian to drive about 24k mikes. Many of us may not drive even half that, yet the fee is paid. Myltiply that by however many EVs one has. So I could not disagree more with you. Fees like these indeed are very bad, very unfair.

 

[socaladam]

CA is trying to do the same thing, except it will apply to everyone and every vehicle.

Also, it’s around $400 per vehicle and they say the fuel tax will be removed.

Guess who’s registering all their vehicles out of state? Those who can.

 

[therealcmj]

Guess who’s registering all their vehicles out of state?

People who commit fraud.

 

[ndmiller]

Any law that sets up a capricious and arbitrary fee pulled out of their you-know-what is very bad. And very unfair.

Aren't all tax laws capricious and arbitrary. Even the federal tax laws are based on brackets someone made up.

 

[SANZC02]

Is there not a tax at charging stations?

I’m not aware of anyone charging taxes at charging stations that go towards road repair.

 

[SANZC02]

Any law that sets up a capricious and arbitrary fee pulled out of their you-know-what is very bad. And very unfair.

347 gal. of gas is the energy equivalent for a Rivian to drive about 24k mikes. Many of us may not drive even half that, yet the fee is paid. Myltiply that by however many EVs one has. So I could not disagree more with you. Fees like these indeed are very bad, very unfair.

I assume you say 24k miles using the MPGe number since to go 24k miles on 347 gallons of gas is around 69 miles per gallon.

Not sure that is a fair representation when compensating a fuel tax for a vehicle. Paying a tax by the gallon for road use was actually a decent way to tax use as people were paying based on their use. If they had heavier vehicles or drove more they purchased more fuel, lighter vehicles or less driving they purchased less. People traveling through the states helped funding repairs buying fuel traveling through the states.

Not really sure how those lost funds are replaced with an EV. They are heavier than ICE vehicles so certainly using MPGe as a baseline to look for a fair algorithm to determine an average cost doesn’t work. I agree any arbitrary number is not really fair as smaller EVs and/or people not driving much pay the same as heavier EVs and/or people driving more.

The fairest would probably be some amount based on miles and vehicle curb weight.

I would be curious what your thoughts are on a fair way to offset the fees being lost for road maintenance from vehicles not using fossil fuels.

 

[DuncIT]

PA driver here. I agree completely that EVs need to pay a road tax - especially as most EVs are so much heavier and therefore more destructive than their gas counterparts. However, it should NOT be an arbitrary number - it should be mileage based. Gas tax is obviously mileage based, so should the EV's tax. Mileage is captured by the state, on every vehicle, each year when they are inspected so it would very easy for them to calculate an accruate & individualized EV road tax.

 

[therealcmj]

it would very easy for them to calculate an accruate & individualized EV road tax.

I think I remember some legal issue about this that states could technically only charge for activities within their borders. And to do that they’d need to know how many miles you drove inside the borders of the state, and technically I guess also only those on public roads. Which is doable, but also a privacy issue.

I suppose they could make a box that uses gps coordinates and just records the number miles within the boundaries of the state but not the actual location. But such a device doesn’t exist yet. And lots of people would object to it in the first place.

 

[mkg3]

I am not oaky with any new tax. Just sick of being taxed to death.

PA tax will be on the top of the Fed tax coming. By the time one adds up all the EV use tax, it will add $800~$1,000/yr for any EV.

For one thing, if the tax was based on the weight of the vehicle on the registration, that would make more sense than just a flat fee for any EVs.

The flat fee in PA and what's in the 3B currently going through congress takes no consideration for a light compact EVs vs heavy large EVs (e.g., Fiat 500e vs Escalade IQ). If the objective is to collect for road and highway use, then also acknowledge the impact of the vehicle weight.

Personally, I don't like how it's being implemented. By far the most simplest and most fair is to add the same equivalent Fed excise tax on DCFC rate, just as they do to a gallon of gasoline and diesel fuel. Those who uses it the most, pays the most.

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