Featured Wisconsin Hybrid Tax- is it legal?

Well, i’m not sure why they would make the revision to the Forms already for Electric Vehicle surcharge and not mention any Hybrid classification at the same time.

I was just reading A journal Sentinel budget follow up article which says hybrid registration was increased from $75 up to $150 and Electric vehicle registration increased from $75 up to $175.

Why the DMV does not say anything about a hybrid vehicle surcharge I have no clue.

Lets just cross our fingers and hope that it never does.

I was trying to find an official copy of the budget bill that was signed online but so far no luck.

 

And so it does.

10 b. “Hybrid electric vehicle” means a vehicle that is capable of using gasoline,
11diesel fuel, or alternative fuel to propel the vehicle but that is propelled to a
12significant extent by an electric motor that draws electricity from a battery that has
13a capacity of not less than 4 kilowatt hours and may be capable of being recharged
14from an external source of electricity.
15 c. “Nonhybrid electric vehicle” means a vehicle that is propelled solely by
16electrical energy and that is not capable of using gasoline, diesel fuel, or alternative
17fuel to propel the vehicle.
18 2. If a motor truck or automobile is a hybrid electric vehicle, in addition to the
19fee under par. (a) or (c), a surcharge of $75 shall be added to and collected with the
20fee for each automobile and for each motor truck registered under par. (c) at a gross
21weight of not more than 8,000 pounds.

I guess our Volts will get pinged on this.

At least my Prius won’t.

 

But PiPs and Primes will.

 

I don't like the fact they call PHEV an HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehcile), they should be saying Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle.

 

As others have said, it is legal. You could also look at it as wasteful, bad for the environment and a disincentive for energy efficiency and innovation.

The Republican leadership in Virginia got this passed in 2013. It only lasted until a new Democratic governor got in and repealed it. Instead of asking whether it is legal you should ask if which lawmakers would actually do it and which would act in your best interest. Then vote accordingly.

 

I always have voted correctly
but...

Nice thought but each democratic household is gerrymandered into a large democratic district and each republican is gerrymandered into their own district.

In Wisconsin
Red is a religion and blues are swing voters,
those that vote red will never vote any other way, only chance for change would be to suppress their desire to vote.
Save of coarse elimination of the ability to gerrymander, not likely.

Reds like Sarge are easily riled up so that isn't likely either though.

 

...but in Va. the only thing we got rid of was the hybrid tax....EV's still have a fee.
I guess we left PHEV alone with no fee/

 

In OK the Supreme Court declared their EV tax unconstitutional

 

Source: Oklahoma Supreme Court rules electric vehicle registration fee unconstitutional | KFOR.com

On Tuesday afternoon, the $100 fee for the registration of an electric vehicle as well as $30 for a hybrid was struck down.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court said it was a revenue bill that passed in the last five days and didn’t receive three quarters of support by the legislature.

The revenue, totaling over half a million dollars, was designated for highway construction and maintenance.​

ROFLMAO!

Bob Wilson

 

The OK Supremes aren't saying singling out a car segment is unconstitutional. The ruling is over how it was passed. A cigarette tax met the same fate.

"The Oklahoma Constitution states “no revenue bill should be passed during the five last days of session.” It adds, no revenue bill can become law without a vote of the people or a three-fourths vote."
Oklahoma Supreme Court deems ‘cigarette fee’ unconstitutional | KFOR.com

 

Thought I would update this with real facts.

We got our registration renewal for our Chevy Volt in May. I was prepared to dole out $150 but much to our delight their was NO increase in registration fee. It was still the standard $ 75.00 fee that all normal passenger vehicles pay. I guess we dodged that bullet.

Only the All Electric Vehicles are being surcharged $100 on top of standard registration $75.


iPhone X ?

 

Just because the DMV isn’t setup to collect the tax doesn’t mean it’s not law,
I posted a link to the bill on the state government website and it is clearly stated that specific hybrids are to pay a fee.

Further, the Wisconsin EV owners I know have also yet to pay the increased rate. Perhaps new owners are, but none of the existing owners I know have had to pay more (as of February anyway)

Good for now but only temporary,
when this issue came up in 2009 the state DMV did not have an automated method of identifying affected cars and taxing them, they estimated it would cost about $5 million and require updates to their proprietary software to implement this tax, I have no doubt they are still in that same situation

As for me My Volts registration was $100 this year, my truck was still $75, I will get double hit next year once they sort out how to bill us.

 

I take it you have a special plate on your volt the added the extra $25 charge?


iPhone X ?

 

Nope county BS,

There is a law against the county collecting extra tax on “alternative fuel vehicles “ but even though it’s worded in a way that just says tax, the state says the tax is not on the car it’s on the wheels so it’s fine, even though the tax doesn’t get applied to every vehicle.

Good reason for me to get residence in another county.

 

Wheel tax. What county?


iPhone X ?

 

Marathon, wheel tax is primarily applicable to privately owned “passenger vehicles”
Commercial, farm, semis, trailers, taxis and other non-passenger or commercial vehicles are exempt at this point.

 

Interesting, your truck is not considered a passenger vehicle. Seems like most new trucks sold nowadays have back seats.


iPhone X ?

 

I’m not going to argue with the slightly less egregious registration fee.

Though it does seem rather sad little passenger cars pay the tax but semis and trucks do not.

 

Wisconsin gas-only Prius vehicles are subject to the $75 fee (renewals NOW, new applications after 10/1). Please check the (search) WI Legislative Fiscal Bureau Paper 696, and the following line from the 2019-20 budget:

341.25 (1) (L) 1. b. “Hybrid electric vehicle” means a vehicle that is capable of using both electricity and gasoline, diesel fuel, or alternative fuel to propel the vehicle

Per Paper 696, the carve out is for "full hybrid electric vehicles" that just happen to be able to use "electric motors, which can power the vehicle for short distances and at low speeds". That means gas-only Prius.

It's not yet clear if they will also charge "mild hybrid electric vehicles" that are defined as "cannot power the vehicle using electricity alone". Can someone please run their Prius VIN through the (search) NHTSA VIN decoder to see what comes up under "Primary Fuel Type"? If it says something about "hybrid", you are probably screwed. I ran my 2002 Insight through the decoder, and it came up "Gasoline". I have been told that, if the WI DOT tries to charge the fee by classifying the Insight as a full hybrid, I can contest the fee based on getting that "Gasoline" response from NHTSA. By their (Paper 696) definition, the Insight is a "mild hybrid" in that the vehicle cannot be powered by electricity alone. If anyone reading this also happens to have what is considered a different "mild hybrid", like the hybrid Silverado pickups GM eAssist mild hybrids, like the Malubi Eco, please run it through the VIN decoder and see what it says. I'd be real interested.

Bottom line is that this doesn't make any sense. First, by the vague budget definition, EVERY gas-powered vehicle is a "Hybrid electric vehicle" that indeed uses electricity to fire spark plugs that ignites the gasoline that propels the vehicle. Very poor wordsmithing there! And then, gas-only hybrids are just on a spectrum of efficiency technologies that include small-engine turbos and weight reduction with modern materials. Why target battery/electric-motor technology? It'll probably be obsolete in a few years, anyway.

The only way to get this fixed (if there is one) is to complain LOUDLY to whoever you can, political (your local legislator) or commercial (like Toyota maybe). It appears to have made a difference in Idaho (repealed, I believe), so maybe it can help in Wisconsin. Otherwise, the ~100K gas-only Prius owners are going to be (just about exclusively) filling the $9M hole in the transportation budget. Where do you think they came up with the budget number ($75 * 100,000)?

Agitate!

and Cheers!

B

PS...I couldn't put in links, so search the terms

 

That is bad poilicy but the red states are jumping to that approach.
We successfully repealed hybrid-tax in Va. but we are turning into California-East, so I had some big help fighting it.

Red states want to change to miles driven tax so that green cars do not get "unfair" advantage at the pumps.

If I can help with the arguments, please advise.


PS- We just had an interesting development in Virginia, apparently (the Dems?) just decided to kick hybrids out of free HOV and give that benefit to plug-ins only, like California. But it takes me by complete surprise, so I am not ready to comment on it. In Virginia, we only allow "grandfathered" green car users to use free HOV, so unless Virginia open's up to allow new plug-ins to use I-66 and I-95 there is limited impact. In any case, Virginia's hybrid incentive of free HOV since about 2001 is now dead...there are 16,000 hybrid vehicles still with the "grandfathered" plates so they are out of-luck. But until now, those 16000 hybrid owners still had a sales incentive to keep buying hybrids. No more, so this will cut back hybrid sales in Virginia a little bit, but also we are converting to HOT lanes so it is becoming useless incentive in most cases except some lesser roads can still use free HOV.