LISTEN: After rounds of updates, the Georgia House and Senate have agreed on the latest electric vehicle regulation bill and sent it to Gov. Brian Kemp to sign. GPB's Amanda Andrews has more.
After some final adjustments by the Georgia House and Senate, a bill regulating electric vehicle charging is heading towards the governor’s desk.
The final version of Senate Bill 146 has one major change from previous versions: a reduced tax on charging. Under this new legislation, electric vehicle owners would be taxed 2.84 cents per kilowatt hour — down from 3.47 cents.
The new tax will be in addition to the more than $200 annual registration fee all Georgia EV owners pay.
That has prompted complaints from EV owners like Bette Holland. Holland is a member of the EV Club of North Georgia and she said this tax is unfair.
“I wrote to Gov. Kemp with that same thing: 'Please don’t sign this bill; veto it,'” Holland said. “Because you're trying to build the electric vehicle industry in Georgia. And here they are double-taxing people for the privilege of using an electric vehicle.”
If Kemp signs the bill, the new tax would go into effect Jan. 1, 2025.
Meanwhile, a pilot program that's testing charging motorists by miles traveled is still underway. In January, the Joint Study Committee on the Electrification of Transportation endorsed the Georgia Department of Transportation’s program. A mileage tax would make up for what state leaders see as a loss in gas tax revenue from EV owners.
Anne Blair is the policy director for the Electrification Coalition. She said this is a broad issue to deal with.
“There needs to be some reevaluation of tax policy across the board for vehicles,” Blair said. “And I am hopeful that the road usage pilot will be one reevaluation of that. But in many states, they're struggling to figure out what the right set of policies are.”
Blair said the GDOT pilot will likely be conducted through the end of the year.
