Michigan’s annual registration fees for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles are set to rise in 2026, putting the state at the top of the country for special EV registration costs, according to a Bridge Michigan report distributed through the Associated Press.
The increase will raise annual registration fees for light-duty electric vehicles from $160 to $267, and for plug-in hybrids from $60 to $113, the report said. Those amounts come on top of Michigan’s base vehicle registration fees, which apply to all vehicles and vary depending on the vehicle’s value.
The fee increases are tied to a road funding package passed last fall, which the report said had little financial impact on gas-powered vehicle owners. The report said Michigan has roughly 122,000 electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle owners, who will see sticker shock when they renew their plates.
Supporters of the change argue it fairly charges EV drivers for their use of the road system. State Rep. Tom Kunse, R-Clare, told Bridge Michigan: “The goal was not to nick or punish anyone. We don’t want an undue burden on anybody,” adding, “But, if we look at the math, I think it’s right where it should be.”
Critics call the adjustment an unfair burden. Karl Bloss, a longtime EV owner in Muskegon, said, “The thinking in the EV community is that this is way beyond what EV drivers should be made to pay,” while opponents also argued the change hits a group already paying more toward road-related costs.
The report said the EV fee hike makes Michigan the most expensive among 40 states that charge a special EV registration fee. It cited national databases maintained by the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Tax Foundation, saying Hawaii and South Dakota charge $50 per vehicle and that the national average is a little over $100.
The road funding deal passed last fall is expected to generate more than $1.8 billion a year for roads, including about $1 billion this fiscal year, the report said. It said the plan relies in part on abolishing Michigan’s 6% sales tax on gas while raising the fuel tax from 31 cents to 52.4 cents a gallon—changes that, the report said, have virtually no change for gas-powered drivers at the pump.
The EV registration spike results from a 2015 law the report said tied EV registration fees to the cost of the gas tax. It described an automatic formula that increases fees by $5 for electric vehicles and $2.50 for hybrids for every cent the Michigan gas tax rises above 19 cents. The report estimated EV fee hikes would generate about $12 million a year in new revenue, a small fraction of the larger roads package.
Efforts to undo the change appear unlikely to succeed in the Legislature, the report said. Sen. Sam Singh, D-East Lansing, last fall proposed a bill to reduce the EV fee increases—setting them to $1.88 and 94 cents for every penny increase to the gas tax. Under that proposal, the report said, EV owners would have faced a $63 fee increase this year instead of $107 under the enacted deal, and plug-in hybrid owners would have seen a $32 increase instead of $53.
The Senate Appropriations Committee held a hearing on Singh’s bill in November but did not vote on it, the report said. Even if approved by the full Senate, House Speaker Matt Hall has said the House does not plan to take it up. In a statement provided to Bridge, Hall said: “I negotiated this historic roads deal with the governor, and the Legislature, including Senator Singh, voted for it,” adding that Singh’s bill would “be going back on the deal we all agreed to, and that’s not how deals work.”
Singh said the EV fees still warrant discussion, describing that lawmakers stressed during negotiations that changes to sales tax at the pump would be revenue neutral for drivers. He also told Bridge Michigan: “We had obviously tried to bring the issue up during negotiations,” and, “I think, unfortunately, there were so many moving pieces that this is one of the pieces that got left behind.”
Beyond the fee debate, the report said Michigan’s road conditions remain a concern. It cited Citizens Research Council ranking Michigan as having the 40th worst-maintained roads in the nation, and described that both EV and infrastructure advocates want a more equitable road-funding formula based on road usage rather than vehicle type. It said lawmakers directed the Michigan Department of Transportation to study a mileage-tax or usage-charge concept and noted that other states have experimented with similar approaches while raising privacy concerns.
The report also described broader policy headwinds for EV adoption, saying EVs are 1.3% of Michigan’s roughly 8 million vehicle registrations, with 102,549 EVs registered in the state and 19,226 plug-in hybrids. It said Michigan is not on pace to meet Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s goal of putting 2 million EVs on Michigan roads by 2030, and noted that the Trump administration canceled the $7,500 federal tax credit for new EV purchases that had been put in place by former President Joe Biden.
A separate disclosure appended to the report said Whitmer’s office declined to comment on the EV registration fee hike.