ATLANTA — The Georgia General Assembly passed a bill Monday that would add new taxes for electric cars.
Republicans have rewritten a bill that critics said would have taxed Georgia electric vehicle owners for electricity at a rate higher than anywhere else in the country.
Backers of the EV tax argue it is unfair for drivers of petroleum-fueled vehicles to pay a gas tax while drivers of electric vehicles don’t. The state gas tax funds fixes and updates for roads and bridges.
A bill that passed the House and Senate earlier this month created an EV tax that critics said was too high.
The Senate bill originally would have made Georgia the most expensive of the five states that tax the electricity used to charge electric vehicles. Last week, lawmakers lowered the rate to put Georgia in the middle of the pack.
"These are equitable numbers to a gallon of gasoline," state Rep. Rick Jasperse (R-Jasper) told House members Monday.
The bill would still allow EVs to charge at home untaxed.
However, it would require kilowatt-hour taxes on public charging stations – like the ones at the Atlanta Botanical Garden and other public and workplace sites.
"There are still several thousand EV charging stations in the state that would be illegal when this law goes into effect," said Jennette Gayer of Environment Georgia. "We need to do something to make sure we’re not cutting out thousands and thousands of chargers in the state of Georgia overnight basically."
The state house passed the EV bill with only one dissenting vote.
Critics had hoped to get it changed before the Senate passed it but were unable to convince senators to make edits to the bill.
The Senate passed the bill late Monday afternoon, sending it to Gov. Brian Kemp for signature.