Driving an Electric Vehicle Could Cost You an Extra $130 a Year

To boost highway maintenance, a new bill in Congress proposes an annual fee for battery-powered vehicles

By Sean McLain of The WSJ. Excerpts:

Economists say that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Highways have to be paid for somehow. If more people drive electric cars then less money is collected from the gas tax which is used to maintain highways. A big question is how much should EV drivers pay? With a gas powered car the more you use the highways the more gas you use. So you pay more in taxes at the pump. The article also touches on the fact that when cars get better mileage less money gets collected from the gas tax.

Excerpts from the article:

"When drivers pump gasoline, a small tax on each gallon contributes $30 billion a year to maintain the interstate highway system. But what about cars that don’t use gasoline at all?

If a proposed House of Representatives bill becomes law, electric-vehicle owners would face an annual, nationwide registration fee to chip in for road repairs"

The new bill "proposes charging a registration fee every year to EV owners. The amount would start at $130, rising every two years until it hits $150."

"The federal gas tax sits at 18.4 cents a gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents a gallon for diesel. Those rates were last increased in 1993."

"The fee would mean EV drivers could end up paying more than drivers of traditional vehicles, who pay between $73 and $89 a year in gasoline taxes" according to a pro EV group.

"all drivers are using less fuel. U.S. drivers consumed about 374.05 million gallons of motor gasoline a day in 2025, a decrease from 2024 despite driving more miles"

"car engines in recent decades have become smaller and more efficient, and hybrid options have surged in popularity."