Senator Tod Bowman
Owners of cars that run solely on electricity would no longer get a big break on their registration fees under a proposal that’s been revived at the statehouse.
Currently there’s a flat, $25 annual registration fee for electric cars, but fees for other vehicles are based on weight and value. Senator Tod Bowman, a Democrat from Maquoketa, says there are fewer than four dozen of these cars licensed in Iowa today, models like the Nissan Leaf and the TESLA Roadster.
“We have 41 vehicles currently registered, ” Bowman says. “…They’re not hybrids that we’re talking about, but pure electrical cars.”
This past week senators voted 33 to 17 to attach this registration change to a budget bill that includes now includes dozens of policy proposals. Earlier this year the Senate passed a bill to raise electric car registration fee, but it stalled in the House over objections about a section of the bill that dealt with registration fees for recreational vehicles.