Featured New Jersey has it right

My comment was based on the (fact?) that most/all state DMVs already have the vehicle weight and register via the weight class of the vehicle.
No new software or database required...just possibly a rate adjustment which is hard to do.

Mike

 

There is a weight classification for trucks, but the DMVs I'm familiar with aren't using one for cars. NHTSA has one that uses weight, but that's it. It doesn't distinguish between car types. The EPA's does do types, but doesn't use weight. It uses interior volume, which has an indirect relation to exterior size, at best. If DMVs use anything, it's the EPAs, as that uses the compact, midsize, large, etc. designation we are familiar with.

Car classification - Wikipedia Truck classification - Wikipedia

It looks like NJ just made up their own system, NJ MVC | Registration and Title Fees, hybrid Rav4 costs more than the ICE model under it. So using another metric, or coming up with a new one, isn't out of the question.

If we applied rates based on weight classification of trucks, the Rav4 should pay more than the Camry. While the Camry is a 6th of an inch narrower, it is nearly a foot longer and the V6 model 200 pounds heavier than the Rav. The sedan is guiltier of requiring bigger public and private parking spaces, bigger street parking spaces, wider lanes, and also cause more damage in accidents when they hit smaller cars due to their larger mass. We could treat class 1 trucks as cars, but then the bigger and heavier Tacoma and Highlander get a pass. Keep them separate, and SUVs start becoming station wagons from the manufacturer.

What would likely happen is how Pennsylvania does it. My 2000 Ranger, fully loaded, weighted about 200 pounds more than a friend's Tahoe of similar age, empty. Pa ignored any official classification, and called the SUV a station wagon, charging it the lower car rate for registration.

Truck owners usually get the line that the higher fees are because of the heavier weight, but subsets get exemptions if it would upset voters. So if you want to charge more for reasons besides weight, actually base the rate on those metrics. Then you don't run into contradictions like the Rav4 and Camry.

 

Comrade Murphy's been behind it from the beginning, so it should be signed pretty soon.

 

Murphy signs electric vehicles incentives measure - NJBIZ

 

Highlights:

• A rebate of $25 per mile of range for an electric vehicle, for a maximum of $5,000. The rebate is funded through the state’s already established Clean Energy Fund. The rebate program would continue for 10 years after its start, and can’t exceed $300 million from the fund.
• 330,000 light-duty electric cars or trucks on the road by the end of 2025, and 2 million by 2035. Light-duty vehicles are private passenger cars, minivans, sport utility vehicles, crossover vehicles, or pickup trucks.
• 85% of all new light-duty vehicles sold in New Jersey are to be electric by the end of 2040.
• 400 fast chargers installed statewide in 200 charging stations by the end of 2025. A fast charger provides 150 kilowatts of charging power, and can charge a car in a fraction of the time a standard plug requires.
• The charging stations would be no more than 25 miles apart.
• At least 15% of all multifamily residential properties would have chargers.
• 10% of new buses for NJ Transit are to be zero emission vehicles by 2024.

Progress, but that's only a ($25 x 25 mi) $625 rebate for the Prime. Only vehicles eligible for the full $5000 are those with at least 200 mi EPA range, which excludes all PHEVs and many BEVs:

 

Tesla signs Supercharger deal with New Jersey Turnpike - Electrek

 

Wow, great news for Planet NJ! Now if I could only pump my gas into my Prius....

 

I get to pump my own electrons. <grins>

Bob Wilson

 

Now if they would only put charging stations on the Parkway.

 

That would be a major bonus, especially up in Bergen County and down by Cape May, the alpha and omega.

 

Right now, the plan is for one at the Forked River rest area.