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Illinois EV Plates
- Thread starter Btsmith
- Start date
You could maybe just do the right thing and pay the EV road tax. $100 is a pretty cheap number compared to many states.
It’s not a $100 tax, it’s a $100 premium over every other passenger plate.
Until this year EV plates were 17.50 a year...they are now $250 a year. I believe Illinois is now the only state that not only does not have a tax incentive (purchase rebate, electric rate discount, subsidized financing, or reduced annual registration), they add additional tax to make it more expensive than a gas vehicle.
Until this year EV plates were 17.50 a year...they are now $250 a year. I believe Illinois is now the only state that not only does not have a tax incentive (purchase rebate, electric rate discount, subsidized financing, or reduced annual registration), they add additional tax to make it more expensive than a gas vehicle.
Gasoline taxes are mainly designed to pay for roads and road repair. EV plate fees are mainly designed to replace gasonline taxes.
To avoid these fees, you could avoid roads, as then you won’t need a license plate! You get what you pay for. Driving on roads is not “free”.
Admittedly trucks should pay more in road taxes since they wear out roads faster. But they also carry commerce so it’s hard to be equitable.
In Michigan we pay $100+ extra for EV plates. No incentives, no Tesla Stores...
RFernatt
Solar/EV Owner/Enthusiast
In West Virginia, no EV incentives, no stores, and $200 more for EV registration. Still cheaper than state and federal fuel taxes. EV owners should pay their fair share for roads, but it would be more fair, especially for low range EVs, if the fee were mileage based like it is for ICE owners and fuel taxes.
midwestLemur
Member
This is a problem even without electric cars because gas cars keep getting more efficient as well. If there was a gas car that was as efficient as a Model 3 you'd have to drive over 30k miles a year to pay the same amount in gas tax.
If a single higher plate fee is the best way to pay for roads going forward than that should apply to all vehicles and not just to the less than 1% of vehicles on the road in Illinois that are all electric. With gas taxes shifting to being a carbon emissions fee that will primarily pay for electrification.
No, it's not possible. When the EV plates were cheaper, you had a choice. Now that you pay the additional $100/year, it's mandatory for all EVs. I just registered my Volt and the lady at the DMV looked up a list in her files to make sure it's not an EV.
I was hoping to renew my EV plates at the old rates, as mine expired 12/2019 and rates come into effect on 1/2020. However, my car, despite my license plate sticker and registration forms stating 12/2019, it is now 1/30/2020 in the system when I called customer service. It was manually changed by someone higher up (unclear who) and when I talked to the EV department, this was done to others as well and they haven't heard why. This seems very shady to me. I can renew my RAV4 that expires also 12/2019 at the old rate. Illinois must really want their money.
jgillispie
Member
Once again I'm too lazy but hopefully someone uses legal channels to make sure everything is clean with this. Changing registration dates without notification to owners is shady at best and the no personalized plates just straight bias.
Unsurprisingly they haven't taken this down yet - Electric Vehicle License Plates
With the infamous "In no event may the registration fee for electric vehicles exceed $18 per registration year."
That's because there is a 30 day grace period to renew, so you are not actually getting any additional time that others with plates expiring at the end of 2019 are not also getting.
Bottom line is that registration of all EL plates in IL expires at the end of this year. There is no way to avoid the higher fees if you want to register your car after this year. There is also no way to obtain a specialty plate instead of an EL plate at this time. Seems stupid because IL is leaving money on the table as I'm sure people would be willing to pay the EL fees plus a specialty plate surcharge to get specialty plates. But right now because specialty plates are cheaper than EL plates their systems can't process those for electric vehicles.
Bottom line is that registration of all EL plates in IL expires at the end of this year. There is no way to avoid the higher fees if you want to register your car after this year. There is also no way to obtain a specialty plate instead of an EL plate at this time. Seems stupid because IL is leaving money on the table as I'm sure people would be willing to pay the EL fees plus a specialty plate surcharge to get specialty plates. But right now because specialty plates are cheaper than EL plates their systems can't process those for electric vehicles.
It is odd that I can renew my rav4, same expiration date 12/2019 for the old rate rather than price hike that takes in effect 2020. Also my new expiration date on Tesla is 1/30/2020 in their system after someone manually changed it to Jan on Nov 1st.
eCharcoal
Member
I believe all EL plates have a sticker on them with Dec 2019 expiration date regardless of the month the car was registered. 12/31/2019 will be the date when the $17.50/year ends.
I understand EV drivers need to pay their shares to repairs road but at least give us a better design for the EL plate. They look so bland like a commercial plate!
midwestLemur
Member
We're still less than 1% of the vehicles on the roads in Illinois, and the need to get people into EVs is still acute. The whole point of this law was to discourage adoption of EVs especially with the initial scare headlines of "$1000 annual fee" followed up by the second page correction to "$250 a year". If it was really about paying for the roads, why do normal vehicles have a reduction in fees for depreciation while a 10 year old $8000 Leaf will be required to pay the same as a brand new $200k Taycan.
EV's share of road fees could be paid with minimally raised registration fees on new low mpg / highly polluting vehicles. Gas taxes aren't a good way to pay for roads going forward anyway. They should be used instead to only pay for the transition to EVs. There's still lots of places in Illinois with no L3 chargers at all, like Peoria or the Illinois side of the Quad Cities.
I just went to the DMV for this today. I bought my model 3 mid October and got the permanent EL plate this week. They expire next month. How does that make any sense? $159 for title and registration in October and the plates expire in December. The renewal is $250.
I understand the additional charge for the gas tax and have no problem using registrations to pay for it but what really upsets me is not being able to keep my Marine Corps plates for the Tesla. Requiring all EVs to have EL plates seems very short sighted especially with the current number system of numbers only on a 5 character plate. The VIN is right on the registration and could easily be used to identify EV from ICE.
I understand the additional charge for the gas tax and have no problem using registrations to pay for it but what really upsets me is not being able to keep my Marine Corps plates for the Tesla. Requiring all EVs to have EL plates seems very short sighted especially with the current number system of numbers only on a 5 character plate. The VIN is right on the registration and could easily be used to identify EV from ICE.
It's yet another money grab for this state, no wonder people and businesses are leaving the place. The EL plates are downright ugly. I was really hoping to someday get a 'No Gas' or 'No Oil' or something of that nature for a fun plate.
If you don't consider it a tax then how are you paying for road fees?
And no, you are far from being the only state. Georgia does the same as well as others.
thefortunes
Active Member
Wisconsin also. In fact, per States That Charge Extra Fees To Own An Electric Vehicle | MYEV.com 17 states charge EVs extra.
Guess your "belief" has proven incorrect, lol.
I did the math recently. If you assume that everyone should pay the same registration fee and that any extra charged to EV owners is meant to recover lost gas tax revenue then we are being charged the same as a 35-40 mpg ICE vehicle traveling 10k miles per year. Putting aside whether IL effectively manages tax revenue, this is not outrageous. It would be logistically difficult to charge based on actual mileage. Gas tax is a good way of charging for use, but EV's make this difficult. I'm fine with an assumption of 10k miles, but I think at a minimum they should recover the lost revenue under the assumption of something more like 100 mpg. That would translate to a $38 premium given the $0.38 per gallon gas tax. I agree encouraging EV adoption by keeping registration flat or lower would be ideal, but right now it would be benefiting the wealthier who are predominantly buying EV's. We are at the threshold of EV's being a cost effective choice for someone considering a budget vehicle and as cost of ownership continues to drop I hope we see more incentive programs. I think we should see EV incentives adjust on a sliding scale pinned to income rather than volume. Tesla should get unlimited $7,500 credits for example, but they should be on a sliding scale where income under 100k gets the full credit and over 200k gets no credit.
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