On Thursday, Republicans in the House of Representatives managed to pass President Donald Trump's sweeping budget bill, officially known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," by a single vote. And there are some provisions in it that are bound to affect millions of drivers across America: namely, the bill adds a $250 federal registration fee for electric vehicles.

The text of the Big Beautiful Bill states that the federal government will "propose for each year the following registration fee" of $250 for a covered electric vehicle and $100 for a covered hybrid vehicle. If the bill goes into law as written, this kind of broad, federal registration tax on electric vehicles would be the first of its kind in the United States.

Rep. Sam Graves.

"The bill includes provisions from the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to provide historic investments in the United States Coast Guard to strengthen our national and border security, as well as … ensuring that electric vehicles begin contributing to the Highway Trust Fund," Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), chairman of the influential Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said.

This rhetoric from Republican lawmakers is not surprising. Back in February, Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) spearheaded an initiative to add a $1000 annual road use fee for electric vehicle owners, as legislators claimed such a steep annual tax was necessary to recoup a decade of lost gas taxes from battery-powered vehicles. This more recent push to add annual registration fees is motivated by the same mission, though its enforcement will actually rest on the states.

You read that right: The federal government expects each state to implement this new federal EV tax at a state level and will provide grants to each state to aid in the process. Now, this expectation isn't radical on paper, as each state is naturally responsible for its own vehicle licensing and registration rules, but language in the bill suggests that failing to implement this EV tax will not be an option.

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"The Administrator shall withhold, from amounts required to be apportioned to any State under section 104(b), an amount equal to 125 percent to the amount required to be remitted under subsection (c)(2). The Administrator shall withhold the amount on the first day of each fiscal year beginning after September 30, 2026, in which the State does not meet the requirements of subsection (c)," the text of the bill reads.

Translating that threat into plain English equates to the federal government saying that non-compliant states will be charged 25% on top of the calculated amount of funding the state was expected to bring into the Highway Trust Fund. Essentially, the bill extends an enforcement arm for the federal government to force states to pay up whether they implement the fee or not — and it will be more costly for states that choose not to. (These sorts of monetary tactics aren't unheard of, as Louisiana briefly lost $17 million in federal highway funding before it reversed its course on raising the drinking age to 21 years old in 1996.)

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What can EV owners across the nation expect if this bill becomes law? Well, it will likely depend on your state. States like California and Washington have already added an extra fee for EV registration in a localized effort to pad their gas tax and road repair funds, indicating that owning an electric or hybrid vehicle could get significantly more expensive. It puts states with existing EV registration fees in a tough spot, as they could pull back on statewide initiatives to relieve EV owners of undue costs but could lose their state and local road repair funds in the process. States that don't yet have an EV registration fee, like Florida, would see an immediate rise in costs for EV owners.

That said, the measure remains theoretical for now, as the bill still requires a Senate vote, as well as the president's signature, before becoming law.