Registration fees increase for hybrid/electric vehicles

 Beginning Jan. 1, drivers across the state of Tennessee who own hybrid and electric vehicles discovered an extra fee added to their vehicle registration.

Gov. Bill Lee signed the Transportation Modernization Act, in April 2023, saying the extra revenue will help to alleviate urban congestion and be used to fund road projects in rural areas. The justification behind the increase in fees is the loss of revenue that the state typically receives from taxes on gasoline. With electric vehicle owners not purchasing gas and hybrid owners purchasing less than those who drive vehicles powered solely by gas, the state is losing revenues used for the department of transportation.

According to White County Clerk Sasha Wilson, an additional registration fee for electric vehicles is not a new concept. Wilson said that before Jan. 1, 2024, electric vehicle owners were charged a $100 fee on top of the usual $71 registration fee. This year, however, the state has raised that fee to $200, making registration of an electric vehicle cost $271 per year.

“There didn’t use to be an additional fee for hybrid vehicles,” Wilson said that was another change enacted by Lee’s Transportation Modernization Act. “Now there is a $100 fee added to registration if you own a hybrid.”

Wilson said since the first of the year there have been close to a dozen vehicles registered in her office that have been subject to the new fees, with the majority of those vehicles being hybrid.

“They’re not happy,” Wilson said about the response when people are faced with the increased fee, with some even thinking there was an error on their registration letter. “They bring it in and ask what it is about or think there is a mistake.”

However, the amount of tax revenue being lost is evident when talking to hybrid vehicle owners, with one owner saying they are able to go 600 miles on a single tank of gas.