New Hawaii laws affecting electric vehicle owners
Hawaii’s Governor Green recently signed into law a few bills that Hawaii EV was tracking. The most impactful one is the following:
SB1534 SD2 HD3 CD1 (Act 222) - This replaces the $50 annual state EV registration surcharge with a $0.008 per-mile road usage charge. Vehicle owners can opt to pay a flat $50 annual EV registration surcharge instead of the per-mile fee until 2028, after which it becomes a pure per-mile road use fee. By the end of 2033, all passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks will be subject to the mileage-based fee. This is part of an effort to migrate away from the fuel tax used to fund road infrastructure maintenance.
What this means for EV owners: We can continue to pay $50 annually (something we’ve been doing for the past couple of years) until 2028. Those who drive minimally can opt for the per-mile fee option and potentially pay less. (Multiply your expected annual miles by .008 to determine how much you would be expected to pay.)
Details:
The start of the mileage-based road usage program for EVs is July 1, 2025.
At this point, EV owners will have the option to pay a fixed $50 annual registration surcharge OR a $.008 per-mile road usage fee. The current $50 annual EV registration surcharge will be ended at this time.
Mileage figures will be determined via odometer readings that are obtained during the vehicle inspections that are conducted during the registration renewable process.
The program will transition to a per-mile road usage fee ONLY for EV owners starting July 1, 2028.
The program is expected to be applied to ALL cars and light-duty trucks by 2033.
Other transportation-related bills that are now law include:
SB1024 SD2 HD1 CD1 (Act 226) - Establishes long-term goals for zero-emissions transportation in Hawaiʻi and abroad to reduce and eliminate transportation emissions. Establishes the clean ground transportation working group and the interisland and clean transportation working group.
What this means for EV owners: Nothing in the near-term. We expect the working groups to deliver recommendations that will accelerate the decarbonization of transportation in Hawaii. There may be some resulting recommendations that will help with EV adoption.
SB968 SD2 HD1 CD1 (Act 202) - Requires the Department of Accounting and General Services to collaborate with the Department of Transportation to develop, implement, administer, and manage a program to enable parking stall sharing among public employees of the State and a pilot project to provide bicycle storage lockers at facilities where parking is made available to public employees.
What this means for EV owners: Nada. This does not directly impact EV adoption. The original version of this bill called for the installation of EV chargers in state facilities.
