I just received my vehicle registration renewal for my electric vehicle. What I encountered disappointed me. Utah’s Department of Transportation is making it more difficult to be an electric vehicle owner, rather than less difficult. This is crazy.
I have been reading about the voluntary pay-per-mile program the DOT launched a year or two ago. I was not aware how ridiculous it was until I received my registration renewal notice this week. I was offered the choice of paying a $90 flat fee for my itemized “road usage” fee or paying 1.5 cents per mile. The DMV is trying to recruit EV drivers into the pay-per-mile program on the basis that you can pay less if you drive less than 6,000 miles per year (the average driver clocks over 10,000 miles per year). In order to save money, anywhere from $0 to perhaps $20 of savings depending on how much you drive, you must install a mobile app that tracks your location and mileage.
Nowhere did I see any mention of appreciation for driving an emissions-free vehicle — only the opportunity to sell my privacy to the state for a few bucks. I hope no one is participating in this embarrassment of a program.
Let me take one step back. We need funding for our infrastructure. Much of this financial support comes from fuel taxes; EVs pose a challenge to this model. Please come up with a new funding model instead of penalizing our fellow citizens who are helping clean up the air along the Wasatch Front by driving EVs. We can put a price on maintaining our roads. Can you put a price on clean air?
Josh Weiner, Salt Lake City