Georgia Electric-Car Fee Cut From $200 To $75 By Proposed Bill
For a couple of years, Georgia offered an example to the rest of the nation on how a seemingly unlikely state could boost electric-car sales.
Then it all came crashing down.
Last spring, opponents of the state's generous $5,000 income-tax credit for purchase of a zero-emission vehicle killed off the incentive, in effect since 1998.
DON'T MISS: Georgia Electric-Car Sales Plummet After Incentive Replaced By Tax (Nov 2015)
It was replaced by a $200 annual registration fee for electric cars--more than the state gasoline tax paid by a 25-mpg gasoline vehicle driven 15,000 miles a year.
(Legislators also simultaneously gave a tax break to Mercedes-Benz employees who lease cars from the company. Rather than requiring them to pay the state's standard car tax, the company itself--which had relocated its U.S. headquarters to Atlanta--would pay just an application fee and a small charge for specialized license plates.)
Opponents of the tax credit had claimed it unfairly privileged electric-car buyers over other citizens, including drivers of other greener cars like hybrids and plug-in hybrids.
The tax credit expired July 1, and sales of plug-in cars (both battery-electrics and plug-in hybrids) plummeted almost 90 percent from June to August.
ALSO SEE: Insult To Injury? GA Kills Electric-Car Incentive, Adds Last-Minute Luxury-Car Tax Break (Apr 2015)
Metropolitan Atlanta no longer shows up in the top sales areas for the Tennessee-built Nissan Leaf electric car, nor are BMW i3 sales figures notable in the state.
But there may be some small consolation for the state's electric-car owners in a new bill introduced two weeks ago in the Georgia House.
That measure, House Bill 878, would reduce the annual registration fee for electric cars and other zero-emission vehicles from $200 a year to $75.
That's lower than the $165 in gasoline taxes that would be paid by the driver of that hypothetical 25-mpg vehicle driven 15,000 miles a year on state roads.
The bill would take effect on July 1, and apply to all payments due starting January 1, 2017.
CHECK OUT: When Electric-Car Incentives Return: British Columbia Case Study
The bill has not yet been voted on by the House; it must also be passed by the Georgia State Senate.
Electric-car advocates had reportedly hoped to get the state's zero-emission-vehicle tax credit reinstated, perhaps extending it to include plug-in hybrids as well.
Thus far, legislation to achieve that goal does not appear to have been introduced in the new legislative season that began last month.
_______________________________________