Electric vehicle drivers will be taxed when charging publicly starting on Wednesday.
A new tax is coming for Wisconsin drivers, specifically those with electric vehicles.
Starting Wednesday, EV owners will see a 3 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity tax when charging publicly.
Reporter Jenna Rae went to several public charging stations Monday to see if drivers knew about the change.
“Yes, this is our first time charging,” Andrew Jordan and Emily Bunzel said.
We met Jordan and Bunzel at a West Allis EV charging station. They had just purchased an EV on Saturday.
“With the amount of money we’re saving not doing gas, those three cents [are] still negligible. We’re saving so much charging with electric,” Jordan explained.
“I think it does make sense, to a certain extent, because we haven’t had too many taxes on electric charging so far, especially compared to the taxes on gas,” driver Austin Moore-Gotsch said.
The tax dollars will be used to help better maintain roads. Drivers who charge at home, won’t be taxed.
“It’s definitely understandable that they would want to make some money off of this,” Moore-Gotsch added.
“If it’s going to build roads and things like that, we use the roads too,” Jordan echoed.
EV drivers will see an average of $1.50 more per charge. That’s compared to gas cars that see an average of $5.00 more because of the gas tax.