LOUISVILLE, Ky. — All throughout America, drivers are paying document excessive costs to fill their fuel tanks. However not Mike Proctor.
“We’re driving on sunshine,” mentioned Proctor, who expenses his Tesla and his spouse’s Honda Readability with energy generated by the photo voltaic panels on his Richmond, Kentucky residence.
However a invoice at present shifting by way of Kentucky’s Basic Meeting would hit electrical car (EV) homeowners like Proctor with a brand new tax, which he fears would discourage EV adoption on the worst doable time.
“We wish to see the entire EV market develop to possibly 10% of the automobiles on the highway in order that we don’t kill this factor in its infancy,” mentioned Proctor, who serves on the board of administrators for the EV advocacy group Evolve KY.
On the finish of 2020, there have been just below 2,700 EVs registered in Kentucky, according to federal government data. That’s fewer than 32 different states and a tiny fraction of the 3.5 million autos registered in Kentucky.
“We’re simply involved that these taxes would possibly gradual the adoption of EVs,” Proctor mentioned.
The taxes that Proctor and different EV evangelists oppose are contained in House Bill 8, which handed out of the Home final week. One provision of the invoice would add a 3 cent per kilowatt hour tax to electrical car charging. That might imply a full cost on a 50 KW battery Tesla Mannequin S could be taxed $1.50.
One other provision of the invoice would institute a $140 annual price on the registration of electrical autos and a $70 annual price on hybrid autos.
At the very least 30 states have related registration charges on EVs, according to the National Conference of States Legislatures. The annual charges vary from a excessive of $225 in Washington to a low of $50 in Colorado, South Dakota, and Hawaii. Each state that borders Kentucky expenses EV homeowners an additional registration price.
Rep. Jim Duplessis (R-Elizabethtown) defined on the Home ground final week that the charges make up for the fuel taxes EV homeowners keep away from.
“As automobiles change into increasingly electrified, the automobiles which might be driving on the roads aren’t shopping for gasoline to pay for the roads that they’re utilizing, which is able to quickly put a giant damper on the states’ freeway funds,” he mentioned.
At current, each gallon of fuel in Kentucky is taxed 26 cents. Most of that’s directed into the state’s highway fund, which covers prices related to constructing and sustaining roads and bridges.
Given the small variety of EVs in Kentucky, the brand new taxes wouldn’t generate a lot income. However they might right what some see as a difficulty of equity.
“Electrical automobiles nonetheless have wheels they usually’re nonetheless on the roads they usually nonetheless use the asphalt,” Rep. Jason Petrie (R-Elkton), the sponsor of Home Invoice 8, mentioned.
Proctor mentioned he has no problem paying his “fair proportion.” However, he added, “The timing right here is simply terrible.”