A set of bills filed in the Florida legislature would implement a flat tax on the purchase of electric vehicles. The revenue from that tax would fund new electric vehicle charging stations around the state and address the drop in tax collected from gasoline sales.
“As more electric vehicles go on the roads, they are not paying that [gas] tax which goes towards infrastructure,” said Clayton Clemens, a legislative aide to Representative Jackie Toledo (R-Tampa), who introduced one of the bills.
If passed, the bills would be just one of many efforts around the Sunshine State to meet the growing demand for electric vehicles.
Gov. Ron DeSantis last year announced an $8.6 million investment in charging stations, and settlement funds from the Volkswagen emissions settlement have also gone to building out electric-car infrastructure.
Identical bills died in Florida’s 2020 legislative session.
Florida has the third-largest number of electric vehicles of any state in the nation, after California and Washington, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
As of 2018, there were 25,200 registered electric vehicles in Florida.
Contact Sydney Boles at sboles@wjct.org, or on Twitter at @sydneyboles.
