TAMPA, Fla. — Florida State Senator Ed Hooper (R-Clearwater) whose district covers parts of Pasco and Pinellas counties, has submitted a bill to the state legislature that would impose an annual $200 registration fee on people who drive electric vehicles (EVs).
The fee would be added on top of existing registration fees and would rise to $250 by 2029. Plug-in hybrid cars would be charged a registration fee of $50.
Hooper, who serves as Florida's Senate Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development Appropriations Chairman, proposed a similar bill during the 2023 legislative session which the Senate unanimously approved, but the bill wasn’t picked up by the House, as the Tampa Bay Times reports.
As WESH reported in 2023, Hooper introduced the bill to make up for the revenue in gas taxes Florida loses as EVs catch on. "There are more (EVs) on the road than we ever anticipated," Hooper said at the time, "The free ride needs to come to a stop.”
Florida uses gas tax revenues to pay for transportation projects.
According to a Senate staff analysis of the 2023 proposal cited by the Tampa Bay Times, 31 states have imposed some type of registration fee on electric vehicles, but if the bill passes, Florida will have one of the highest EV registration fees in the nation.
A spokesperson for the advocacy group Drive Electric Florida told WESH that he worries $200 is too high a fee and that $125-$150 would be closer to the amount needed to make up for lost gas taxes.
Notably, the bill carves out an exception for "an electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid EV that uses a battery storage system of up to 5 kilowatt hours", which is the range that powers batteries for most street-ready golf carts.
If enacted into law, the bill would take effect on January 1, 2024.