VA Clean Fuel Plates: Worth the effort?

[CT200h]

I am part of a grassroots group involved in an effort to extend an improve the clean fuel plate program in Virginia, www.66alliance.org
Good group of people trying to get Plates extended to EV's and other (FCEV's) . The age of hybrids without a plug is largely over. Take a look at the website.

 

[jackycheong]

See the DMV page on this topic. Not worth it unless you are in Hampton Raods area where you can use it to be exempt from HOV restrictions on I64 and I264....but I am betting those will be phased out as well soon.

My commute to NAS using HOV lane is 13minutes vs 50minutes using regular lane, so $25 a year is totally worth it. But I saw a lot of people abusing the HOV lane everyday and state troops are actively roving during HOV hours.

 

[hblink93]

Personally, I see zero benefit to getting a new Clean Special Fuel plate. Am I missing something? $25/year for what?

 

[MXFan]

Personally, I see zero benefit to getting a new Clean Special Fuel plate. Am I missing something? $25/year for what?

I believe you can still use them for the 267 toll road HOV lane between Tyson’s and Dulles.

 

[bhzmark]

I believe you can still use them for the 267 toll road HOV lane between Tyson’s and Dulles.

And 66 outside the beltway

 

[Vrrooom]

And 66 outside the beltway

Not with the new/current issue of special fuel plates. There are 3 iterations, previous two allow 66. Current one is just 267 and some roads down towards VA beach and Richmond.

 

[bhzmark]

Not with the new/current issue of special fuel plates. There are 3 iterations, previous two allow 66. Current one is just 267 and some roads down towards VA beach and Richmond.

I thought was just 66 inside the beltway which is now replaced by tolls. But I checked and you are right. 66 dropped clean fuel plate exemption outside the beltway also. My pre 2006 plates are still good on parts of 395 though.

 

[MXFan]

I thought there was an EV Charger Tax credit, no?

Yes, but it ended at the end of 2017. It was a Federal 30% rebate (up to $1,000) on costs associated with installation of an EV charging station.

 

[hblink93]

OK--as a Hampton Roads guy, the Clean Special Fuel plate is practically meaningless. I guess they de-incentivized electric and hybrid car usage because there are so many of them on the road now...hah! Global warming---solved. Air pollution---solved! Nice job, VA. Whatever.

 

[GlennH]

A real problem is that VA includes hybrids in their list of "special fuel cars" -- Hey, hybrids burn gasoline, and people are buying lots of them. Instead of eliminating the benefits, VA really needs to remove hybrids from the list of "special fuel cars" as they still burn mostly gasoline. That would greatly reduce the number of cars elegible for the benifits.

Not only is it not worth the trouble to get the special fuel tag in VA, they also add insult to injury on my ANNUAL car tax of 5% of the value of the car by giving a 50% discount for "special fuel cars" which include electric -- But then the reduce it to zero if the car is worth over $20,000... And VA also chareged me $66 MORE for my license plate for having an electric car. I guess because I don't pay the "gas tax" at the gas pump.

I wonder how much people with lung problems due to pollution cost the states.

 

[Xenoilphobe]

I am all for the removal of hybrids from the HOV lanes, good luck with that Virginia, since they sold out to corporate America with the HOT lanes. I can't wait for my second retirement so I can get out of here..

CLEAN FUEL tags, really are worthless in Virginia... get something else, you can't use them anymore in the HOV lanes, they grandfathered that out in July of 2011, if you didn't have the tag before then you can't use the HOV lanes unless you have 2 or 3 people in your car depending on the road you on in the metro area.

 

[GlennH]

I feel your pain ;-)