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Maine Incentives Are History; Electric Cars To Get More Costly

By Neeraj Padmakumar

OYAMA, JAPAN - NOVEMBER 12: Toyota Motor Corp.'s fourth-generation Prius prototype hybrid vehicles sit parked ahead of the test drive at the Fuji Speedway on November 12, 2015 in Oyama, Japan. The new gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle is scheduled to go on sale in Japan in December. (Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)
OYAMA, JAPAN - NOVEMBER 12: Toyota Motor Corp.'s fourth-generation Prius prototype hybrid vehicles sit parked ahead of the test drive at the Fuji Speedway on November 12, 2015 in Oyama, Japan. The new gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle is scheduled to go on sale in Japan in December. (Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images) /
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Electric cars are all set to witness fair hikes in pricing in Maine as part of a campaign to get a better hold of taxes, with the introduction of new registration fees of $150 for hybrids and $250 for all-electric vehicles.

All we have ‘ever’ seen across the globe, is governments promoting electric and hybrid vehicles by issuing special incentives and price-cuts for the potential green car buyers. Now is the high time to rephrase the word ‘ever’ to ‘at least till recent days’ with us having witnessed the Maine Department of Transportation come up with a proposal to charge the electric car buyers extra sums as ‘registration fees’ for these greener sets of wheels.

The reason for this already strange decision seems even odder : According to the DOT,  the green-car owners aren’t paying their fair shares of the road taxes, the sums that for the gas-run cars, are funded through a tax on fuel sales, and the new tax is to be imposed in an effort to procure enough funds for the healthy maintenance of the roads in the country.

Owners are not happy. Meghan Russo, manager of legislative services for the MDOT, told the  Portland Press Herald:

"“The idea is that the owners of these types of vehicles are paying far less in the gas tax than other vehicle owners and they are using the highway system just like any others. There has got to be a way to try and capture revenue from those drivers who are using our road system.”"

Reports suggest that Maine’s highway maintenance budget is short by over $60 million annually, when it comes to the funds involved, despite an existing 30-cent tax on each gallon of gas sold.

Obviously enough, the existing green car owners ( that surprisingly, add up to only less than 3 percent of the total vehicle population of Maine) and conservation groups are not at all happy with the proposal.

Gretchen Ebbesson-Keegan, a retired teacher from Camden, and an owner of a nine-year-old Toyota Prius says in an interview with CarBuzz:

"“I feel like I am being punished if this bill goes through because I am doing the right thing. At some point, we have to take a stand on transitioning to alternative energy. They need to come up with a way to take care of the roads that does not set people against one another.”"

Next: Chicago Auto Show: I didn’t make it.

What do you think of the proposed additional taxes in Maine? Drop in your valuable opinions as comments below.

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