U.S. Texas to impose fee on electric vehicles

HOUSTON, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Starting September, electric vehicle (EV) drivers in the second largest U.S. state of Texas will have to pay the state an extra 200 U.S. dollars each year to register their vehicles, local media reported on Wednesday.

If they want to buy another EV, that will cost 400 dollars upfront, according to a new state law imposing the new fee on EVs to replace gas taxes lost to electrification. The fee will not apply to hybrid vehicles.

Revenue collected from the fee will be deposited into the state highway fund to help pay for roadway construction and maintenance projects.

By doing so, Texas joins about 30 states that impose registration fees on EVs, eenews.net reported, noting that the fee is nearly double what an average driver would pay in taxes at the pump,

The state's new EV fees are among the most expensive across the country, said the report, compared with its gas tax which, unchanged since 1991, is currently one of the cheapest in the United States.

More Republican-led states are trying to create speed bumps to the Biden administration's efforts to electrify and decarbonize transportation, said the report.

Other measures adopted in these states include new taxes on drivers using charging stations and new limitations on how automakers sell EVs.

The Biden administration has introduced huge subsidies for some EVs under the Inflation Reduction Act, coupled with aggressive new tailpipe pollution standards from the Environmental Protection Agency. The U.S. EV market is forecast this year to double the size it was in 2021, said the report.