Pure economics fueled the alternative fuel vehicle registration.

While AFVs help the environment in many ways, they use public roads. Unfortunately, Delaware is asking all Delaware AFVs to bear the entire burden for the loss of gas tax revenue, especially when southern Delaware lives on tourism, specifically the beach towns of Lewes, Rehoboth, Dewey and Bethany, which draw many out-of-state tourists using alternative-fueled vehicles.

The State of Delaware also took the easy way out by charging a flat fee. As an owner of a plug-in hybrid, I am willing to pay my fair share of road usage based on the number of miles I put on my vehicle each year. I believe the current gas tax in Delaware is $0.23 per gallon and the current proposed fee for a plug-in hybrid is $85. I would have had to purchase 369 gallons of gas to generate $85 in gas tax. If an average car got 25 miles per gallon, they would have to drive about 9,000 miles to generate $85 in gas tax. The current fee penalizes the retired community and others who simply don’t drive long or daily commutes that total 9,000 miles per year in a plug-in hybrid.

For pure electric owners, that total would be close to 12,000 miles per year. Since the DMV is collecting this fee and the AFV registration fee is charged at the same time when you renew the standard vehicle registration, it would be easy to check the mileage to determine the rate. In summary, please contact your state representatives and governor to demand they make this fee usage based.