NJ CAR President Jim Appleton issued the following statement in response to the Legislature’s passage of the gas tax increase and new $250 fee for electric vehicles.
The New Jersey Legislature today approved an increase in the gas tax, as well as a $250 fee on electric vehicles, which will go up by $10 in each of the next four years, in an effort to replenish the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) and take care of New Jersey’s roads and bridges.
No one disputes the notion that EV drivers must pay their fair share to maintain roads and bridges or that some form or some amount of user fee must be paid into the TTF by EV drivers. Whether it’s $75 or $150 or $300, we must recognize that how much — and how — the fee is assessed will have a significant impact in the showroom and make it more difficult for consumers to afford an EV.
Since New Jersey new car buyers pay 4-years worth of motor vehicle fees up-front, this supposed $250 fee isn’t just $250 at the point of purchase. It actually adds more than $1000 to the purchase price of an EV in New Jersey.
And this new fee is going into effect at the same time the Governor’s proposed budget does away with the EV sales tax exemption– the most effective and the only consistent EV incentive dealers have had to work with in the showroom Clearly, the state’s aggressive EV mandates are on a collision course with our fiscal realities.
The Governor’s proposed budget and the Transportation Trust Fund bill approved today take incentive money off the table and heap new up-front costs on EV buyers. Consumers will not react well to this. Shrinking EV incentives and adding more than $1000 to the upfront purchase price of a new EV will render the Governor’s goal of 100% EV sales in New Jersey unachievable.