EV drivers get reprieve on annual fee. But it might be temporary

Electric car owners are being spared an annual fee to help pay for roads as soon as next month because the bill containing the fee has stalled in Congress.

A new proposed EV fee that will start at $130 annually beginning in October 2026 was included in a new bipartisan draft of a five-year surface transportation funding bill that the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is considering. Under the proposed legislation, dubbed the BUILD America 250 Act, the fee can be increased by $5 each year until it hits a max of $150 annually. Plug-in hybrid owners would be hit with a $35 fee starting in October that can be increased to as much as $50 by the end of the legislation in 2031.

The proposed fee was lowered from a earlier proposal that would have started at $135. It included in a larger bill to reauthorize surface transportation funding that is set to expire on Sept. 30. The measure was approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, but has not been approved by the full House or Senate. The last transportation funding measure approved by Congress was signed into law by former President Joe Biden in 2021.

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/money/