• Senate Bill 28, introduced by Sen. Ed Hooper, proposes an annual registration fee for electric vehicle (EV) owners in the state.
• The fee would start at $200 per year and increase to $250 annually by 2029. Plug-in hybrid EV owners would also be required to pay a $50 yearly fee.
• The revenue generated from these fees will be used to compensate for declining motor-fuel-based revenue due to the increasing adoption of electric vehicles, with 64 percent going to the State Transportation Trust Fund and 36 percent to the county where the vehicle is registered.
• Florida would join more than 30 other states in imposing such annual fees on EV owners if the bill becomes law.

Florida residents who own electric vehicles (EVs) may soon face an additional financial burden as a piece of legislation filed on Tuesday seeks to impose an annual fee.

Senate Bill 28 (SB 28), introduced by Sen. Ed Hooper, would enact a $200 annual registration fee on EV owners, effective immediately. If signed into law, the fee is scheduled to increase to $250 annually starting in 2029. In addition to the annual fee for EVs, owners of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles would also be required to pay a $50 fee every year.

Of the additional annual license taxes collected, 64 percent will be placed in the State Transportation Trust Fund, while the remaining 36 percent will be allocated to the county where the vehicle is registered. The Department will transfer these allocated funds to the Department of Revenue quarterly. The agency will then distribute these funds to the county commissioners and municipalities within the county based on the proportion of local option fuel taxes distributed in the previous quarter.

The proposed fee mirrors the approach taken with gasoline-powered vehicles, where drivers indirectly contribute to road maintenance and development through the gas tax, which presently stands at 20.2 cents per gallon in Florida.

The revenue generated from SB 28 would serve to offset the declining motor-fuel-based revenue streams resulting from the increasing adoption of electric vehicles. A Senate staff analysis from the 2023 session indicated that the rise in EV usage could lead to a 5.6 percent to 20 percent drop in such revenue streams by 2040.

If enacted, Florida would join more than 30 other states in imposing an annual fee on electric vehicle owners.