Hybrid tax
 

How many of hybrid drivers live in states that punish you for owning a hybrid. Ohio charging me 100 dollars more plus my 37.00 registration fee starting this year. Apparently I don't use burn enough fuel to make our govenor happy.

It's because the politicians don't have the spine to raise fuel taxes.

Now, is Ohio applying this fee to the latest Ram pick up, it is now a mild hybrid?

Which vehicle do you have that's getting the $100 surcharge? I can see how they came up with the idea but have no idea how the $100 compares to what John Doe pays in fuel taxes through the pump. It may be a bargain or it may be a ripoff.

If it's $100 a month, that's a bit unfair, if it's $100 a year, I wouldn't even raise an eyebrow.

I got the impression it was a one-off charge when you register the vehicle.

I took it to mean $100 a year on top of the usual registration fee but could be mistaken.

Less than $2 a week? No one would complain about that surely?! Not when we pay something like $3.40 just in tax on a gallon of our fuel.

In the UK you only register a car when you first buy it.

In Ohio I will pay a registration fee of 137. Per year for my hybrid if I bought it new this month I would pay a prorated registration fee plus 100. And went my plates expire in July I pay my registration fee of 37. and another 100 dollars hybrid fee because it is not prorated.

EVs pay 200 per year plus registration fee.

The law reads a hybrid equipped with an engine able to produce electricity to move the vehicle

Sounds like an absolute bargain considering the fuel cost savings and the fact that fuel is cheaper than water over there anyway. Lighten up.

Again, what vehicle(s) are we talking about?

In the UK EVs pay nothing.

Most pay nothing, but many are subject to the luxury car tax, like every single tesla, future models like the polestar, rivian etc even a top of the range kona can end up paying if the list price goes above the £40,000 threshold.

Yes, but the Luxury Car Tax is based on emissions and an EV pays £320 for the first five years. Not bad when you consider I pay £125 for my 14 years old Jazz, every single year for as long as it survives.

I will be paying 137us per year plus .363 per gal tax. Gas driven vehicle pays only 37.50 per year a half ton p/u pays 56.00 per year.

What make and model of car???

In the UK we pay £2.63 tax per gallon.
That equates to £2.19/US gallon which at today's exchange rate is $2.82 per US gallon.

Assuming an average 25mpg and 13,000 miles a year for the typical car on the road, Ohio's fee isn't that bad for a 50mpg hybrid, like the new Insight. It sucks that legislatures are punishing people for choosing more efficiency cars instead actually addressing road funding issues, but some states are really gouging hybrids and plug ins with these fees, because they are a minority of the driving public.

Now, drive less miles, or have a less efficient hybrid, like a Ram pick up, and the Ohio fee starts gouging. That's the problem with these flat fees to recoup lost fuel taxes. With plug ins arriving, we should move to a per mile tax for all vehicles.
Yeah, our fuel taxes or low, but in addition, the federal, and likely many state, rates are a flat rate with no mechanism to account for inflation that haven't been raised in decades. Combined with steadily increasing fuel efficiency, the revenue from fuel taxes is far short of just regular road maintenance.

The solution should be to increase the fuel tax, or find a solution that has everyone paying a fair rate for road use. I'm partial to a mileage rate, but a tax on tires can also work. Of course politicians don't want to piss off voters with such solutions, but slapping the minority of cars on the road isn't cover the bills.

There is also 18.4 cent federal tax per gallon of gasoline in the US, which is long overdue for an increase.

In the past, a tax on fuel worked for keeping roads in repair. Drive more and you bought more fuel, and heavier trucks were less efficient. With plug ins, this isn't going to work going forward, even with increasing the rates on fuel.

In the UK, after they have added Fuel Tax to the price of petrol they then add VAT (Value Added Tax, a form of Purchase Tax) so we are taxed on the tax we pay!

Yea then we pay road tax based on vehicle emissions (and list price in some cases) which is supposed to be used to fix roads, even though the government only spends a tiny percentage on doing so...

I believe, California adds their general sales tax to fuel in addition to their fuel tax.

In some states, the registration fee for a car includes a property tax based on its value. If those states also add a hybrid and/or plug in fee, they seem to forget that those cars are paying a higher property tax because the those cars are higher value than an ICE one.

This is the reason i will never own a hybrid

Because of a tiny annual tax hike? Oh I can think of far worse reasons to own a hybrid than that haha

Ohio Raised fuel prices as part of the bill.

"The new fees were part of the most recent state transportation budget bill, passed by state lawmakers and signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in April. They were created to accompany a hike in the state’s gas tax — 10.5 cents for conventional gas and 19 cents for diesel — to pay for road and bridge construction and upkeep."

https://www.cleveland.com/open/2019/...next-week.html

That was the quoted reason for Road tax in the UK, all those long years ago. Now, however, it pays for Brexit and Polaris.

$3 a week? whp's gonna complain about it?! Not when we pay something like $4.40 just in tax on a gallon of our fuel.

The problem isn't the money. There are two people who buy hybrids. The ones who want to save money, and the ones who think they are helping save the world. Why should anyone be forced to pay more than their neighbor for the same thing? My old 94 Eclipse was getting 43mpg. My 02 TDI was getting 50mpg. Why does my Fusion, which gets the same fuel economy, have to pay more?

The states bull**** reason was because hybrids use less fuel, which means they add in less per mile to maintain the roads. That is clearly wrong since many straight gas or diesels get as much or better. I understand (while still not agreeing with) the extra tax for electric vehicles that use no fuel, but why hybrids? By that logic, the older hybrid ford escape, which still gets under 30mpg, is also forced to pay more. It's just more bull**** taxes, which no one should be ok with.


Stop licking the boot.

Actually $1.92 a week as everyone pays the $37.50. It's the extra $100 that's a point of contention. At 15,000 miles per year, which is low for many if not most drivers, that works out to 6 cents every 10 miles I think.

And yes, there are a few vehicles that will come close to matching an Insight mpg with fuel only and no hybrid system, key word few. So they get off $100 a year cheaper. But they use fuel for every centimeter they drive.

The insight gets 1 mile fuel free pretty much every time it is driven and depending on the drive it may get more than 1 mile. So with round trips that's at least 10 miles a week fuel free, or 520 miles a year. So 10 gallons fuel not used. That's at least 25-30% of the $100 fee saved. Reality may be more like twice that many fuel free miles, saving at least half of the fee.

So bottom line is I guess we're talking about more like $1 a week or less extra fee. A penny every 5 or 6 miles at most and for many drivers and their annual mileage more like a penny every 10-12 miles.

But besides the raw numbers there's also the principle of the thing.

The average fuel economy of the US fleet has been steadily creeping up. Combined with increasing costs for road maintenance, with a likely neglected fuel tax rate, and states now have a budget shortfall. The fair solution is to increase the fuel tax, or come up a way to fund roads that hits all users equaling. Maybe call SUVs trucks instead of station wagons.

That of course is unpopular publicly. So politicians slap a fee on hybrids, and plug ins, because those segments don't have the clout to fight back. Of course, that's because of their low numbers, which means these taxes on them will only help with the shortfall for a very short time, if at all. Hybrids use less gas, but it's the fact that all cars have been getting more efficient that is causing the funding issue.

A funding system needs to be devised for BEVs, but again, the actual numbers of them on the road now are too low to worry about at this time. Since the Leaf and Volt first on sale in 2010, there were maybe 10 million, BEVs and PHEVs, sold in the US. There is something like 276 million registered cars. Slapping the few plug ins in any one state with a higher fee isn't going to help with budget shortfalls.

If it's any comfort to you guys over there, EACH tank of fuel in my Q7 is $110 just in tax, and the annual road tax is $828 approximately.

If our politicians get their way we will be matching you sooner rather than later. And they'll spend all the money on everything except fixing the roads and bridges.