Impact of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles on Highway Trust Fund in Alabama

The objective of this paper is to help state agencies better understand the impact of electric and hybrid vehicles on the Highway Trust Fund and to develop a method for estimating proper annual registration fees for electric vehicles (EVs). In this study, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to summarize the background on electric and hybrid vehicles, current national and state policies and incentives, the trend of EV market in the U.S., and registration fees on electric and hybrid vehicles. As electric and hybrid vehicles do not contribute to fuel excise tax revenue, to compensate the lost tax revenues, some states charge additional annual registration fees to EV owners. To help the legislators determine the proper annual fees, a method was developed to assess the additional registration fees for EVs and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) in Alabama. The collected data include number of registered electric and hybrid vehicles, fuel tax per gallon, and annual average mileage traveled by electric and hybrid vehicles in Alabama. The results of this study served as a key reference in the Rebuild Alabama Act that proposed an annual registration fee of $200 and $100 for EVs and PHEVs, respectively, which is effective since January 2020. The method in this study can be applied to other states for developing policies on registration fees for EVs and PHEVs to offset the fuel excise tax revenue loss.