Prius tax enacted this week in Alabama

Sorry to hear AL is joining the other states that are implementing the extra EV registration fees.
Was WI the first state to pass such a Law? Or is WI the state with the highest EV registration fees?

Just seems to me like the typical political mismanagement of public tax these days and I hope beyond hope that no other states join the new wave of raising taxes on EV registrations and offsetting the tax incentives for buying a car that uses no / less gasoline.

Don't we all love washing our hands in crude?

 

your vehicle says 2008, what are you driving, a pip? can't be a prime like this forum because 9 miles wouldn't be right.
what is alabama gas tax? how many gallons does $100. cover?

 

reading the article, i don't think one of the comments was correct.

gas tax is 18 cents/gallon. $100/18=555 gallons x 50 mpg = 27, 750 miles per year. that seems about double the average.
you'd be better off trading in for a gen4 lift back.

 

I agree with your concerns. Especially passing a tax on people retroactively on the car they own.
People are already taxed enough and you certainly have to pay property tax each year on your cars already. As you mention you also pay additional taxes when you fill up with gas as you stated.

I think a more equitable way to do this is to pass a law that will tax future purchasers of Electric Vehicles or Plug In Vehicles but existing owners will not be impacted by the new taxes. In this way a buyer knows what they are getting into when they purchase one of these vehicle and can determine if they still want to purchase the vehicle.

No one likes to be taxed more, but passing a new punitive tax on existing owners is foul play - in my opinion it is just not fair.

 

Agreed, it's just not fair. However, slapping an extra tax on a car that's the equivalent of 27,000 miles/year of gas tax (per math in an earlier post) is not the way to do it regardless of when the car is purchased or the tax passed. If there's a need to replace the 'lost' gas tax from electric vehicles with an eye toward a future where all vehicles are electric then there are several more equitable ways to do it:

1. Assess a per-mile tax each year as part of the the registration/inspection process when they get your odometer reading and compare it to the reading at the previous year

2. Require everyone to have one of those automated toll transponders in their car and put up a lot more of the automatic toll gantries (even over main road surface streets) so you get charged for actual driving in state every time you pass a toll and also so the state can collect on all the out-of-state drivers using the roads

3. Put an extra tax on electricity from the grid and collect a little bit from everyone (least equitable, but also least likely to be seen as punishing choosing a car that reduces pollution)

Or, you know, they could just spend the income tax, sales tax, property tax, registration fees, licensing fees, and everything else in a smarter way.....

Sorry, I'll get off my soap box now.

 

I thought soapbox standing and letting others know what you think were what forums are for.

I enjoyed reading your well thought out opinions and hope you keep chiming in!

 

No worries, it doesn't take much for me to shoot my mouth off.

 

For about the last 5 years, Colorado, at least El Paso County, added $50 annually for a plug-in Prius. And, since Toyota didn't specify power sources by VIN #, we had to certify that our Prius was/was not a plug-in vehicle during initial registration.

 

Couple of things:

It's not a "Prius tax" or even a tax at all, but rather a "fee" for PHEVs and BEVs.
If you drive an '08 Prius, as your info suggests then you're not affected.
If you drive a pip, as your post suggests then....yes you'll be paying an extra $100 when you renew your plates.

Several other states (Ohio and Kansas?) are doing this as well - so I'm thinking that there's little that can be done about it in the courts.
States can't print money, and so they have to come up with new ways to pay for state government programs including road construction.

The Prius Prime (Toyota's PHEV) still qualifies for a $4500 federal tax kickback......so you can get one of those and it will pay for 45 years worth of the increases fees. I asked the Googles if there were any state tax credits available and they laughed at me.......but Alabama Power offers an optional rate rider for customers with a Plug-in electric vehicle (PEV). The rate rider allows customers to charge their electric vehicle at a discounted rate during off-peak hours.


Good Luck!

 

So, perhaps Alabama should charge people $200 a year if they don't own a car but walk or ride a bike for them to pay their fair share on the gas tax?

 

Pedestrians, no.
Bicyclists.....only if they insist on paved bicycle lanes.

 

MN imposed $75 upon tab renewal or registration for HV/EV. Reason: HV/EV use less gas, but still driving on the road so the $75 is for road repair. Like to see pay for road usage (toll) instead!!!

 

Maybe Alabama should take even a step further. Humans breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide - humans also as a biological fact generate waste products as part of elimination of toxins from the body.

Surely the state should also impose a fee on every human to help the state deal with these conditions.

 

In other similar threads, I've mentioned a flat fee should be based on vehicle weight and an additional sliding scale based on mileage. After all, larger vehicles are more punishing to roads (and yes this would included BEV's and PHEV's with larger packs) and the more one drives the more wear/tear they cause.

IIRC, the OP has (had) an 08 with transaxle issues; may have upgraded to a PIP.

Pedestrians still use roads and sidewalks that are part of city road construction around here. ADA requirements have my local city spending a lot of money (from what funds?) to reconstruct nearly every major street corner to comply with wheelchair accessibility. Also see pedestrian overpasses, crossing devices, and similar.

 

bob dole paid for those

 

You forgot an important revenue source. Once they're set up for live mileage assessment via toll transponders they'll sell realtime location info to advertisers, credit agencies, employers, researchers and abusive domestic partners.

 

Of course you could always just use odometer statements every year when you renew your vehicle registration....

 

Thanks for a well reasoned reply. I was whining about the $75 our state recently added, but as you mention, I win in the end. Incidentally, I am an ETCM but in my case the SS stands for Surface Skimmer.

 

LOL

Understood shipmate.
I actually had almost as much time in T-AGS ship as I did in boats.
I almost got my water wings back in the day but then we won the Cold War and I had to settle for an EXW pin after I traded the sneakers and poopie suits in.

Like you said.....
You win.
The Prime gets pretty decent mileage even when you're off battery and the tax kickbacks make them cheaper in some states than wireless cars.....

Good Luck!