Question for California drivers...

[RustleT]

Interesting, I dont have any of those charges on my chevy bolt

Thanks for posting! You spurred me to look deeper. I think Gemini AI's smog abatement fee was a hallucination. I posted the CVCs for the other fees. You can look at my post now for the update.

Your Bolt's ZEV fee is called a Road Improvement Fee, which is baked inside your Vehicle Registration Fee (VRF). You wouldn't see a weight fee because your Bolt isn't forced into commercial registration like all pickup trucks, regardless of personal or commercial use in California.

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[Highpi]

Just to be clear, the actual difference in fees between a Ford F-150 Lightning and Ford F-150 for California are:

• Commercial Weight Fee difference: $186 (CVC §9400)
• Zero Emission Vehicle Fee in place of gas tax: $118. It's a road improvement fee baked inside the vehicle registration fee. (CVC §9250.6)
• Total $304 (could vary a bit because of inflation indexing)

I'll gladly pay the difference. The rest of the $1000+ is standard CA charges.

Well shoot, when you put it that way, it does make it a bit more palatable!
Thanks for the cost breakdown.

 

[Scorpio3d]

Not trying to jack the thread as I am in Texas!

Total fees= $278.75:

Registration fees $55
Local fee $11.50
Inspection replacement fee $7.50
Electric vehicle fee $200
Processing and handling $4.75

Not sure what a local fee is maybe the county??
Texas got rid of safety inspections late last year but we still have to pay for it??
No emission fees because it’s an electric vehicle-so for ICE you still have to get the emissions part of the inspection!
Electric vehicle fee is in lieu of the state gas excise taxes which would be $.20 a gallon so that’s equal to about 1000 gallons excluding the federal 18 1/2 cents per gallon

Relatively I guess we have it pretty good even though I think it’s a bit high!

 

[Effonefiddy Lightning]

$1000. I'm so done with this sorry ass state but I can't leave yet.

 

[SMMD]

$1,000+. I don’t consider the State “sorry ass” at all. I think overall, it’s quite a great place. Hopefully you will be able to leave soon for your desired destination.

 

[Effonefiddy Lightning]

$1,000+. I don’t consider the State “sorry ass” at all. I think overall, it’s quite a great place. Hopefully you will be able to leave soon for your desired destination.

It was my opinion, and for more reason than that. That's great for you if you don't think so. I don't know why you felt the need to respond to me just to say so, but, ok.

 

[Calson]

What are you paying for registration?
I was watching a review on the lightning and the guy said due to the weight of the vehicle, he is paying $1000 to register it. Does that sound right? Seems a tad steep to me, even for California.
Or is that an additional tax to make up for lost gas tax income?

We had a Republican governor who put through tax cuts for the rich and to compensate he double the DMV fees. Any pickup in California is now considered a commercial vehicle regardless of its GVWR and so subject to the additional $1,000 fee.

 

[K6CCC]

First of all, the commercial vehicle part on a pickup registration is no where near $1,000. Secondly, all pickups have been registered in Californin as commercial since at least the 1950s. They originally also put station wagons in that category. Police departments across the state were told to aggressively enforce that too. Lots of moms were cited in grocery store parking lots as soon they put their groceries into a non-commercial registered station wagon. The protests over that one was loud and fast - and it did not take all that long for station wagons to be dropped from that requirement.
As previously mentioned, it is possible to get a pickup re-registered as non-commercial if you meet specific requirements, but then you are severally limited with what you can do with the vehicle.

 

[Effonefiddy Lightning]

Regardless of what political party did this is plain stupid and just a money grab.

 

[sdchris]

$1200/yr

Bastards.

Same. I just got mine.

 

[MapleMan650]

Just got mine, $1,064

 

[MaintGrl]

First of all, the commercial vehicle part on a pickup registration is no where near $1,000. Secondly, all pickups have been registered in Californin as commercial since at least the 1950s. They originally also put station wagons in that category. Police departments across the state were told to aggressively enforce that too. Lots of moms were cited in grocery store parking lots as soon they put their groceries into a non-commercial registered station wagon. The protests over that one was loud and fast - and it did not take all that long for station wagons to be dropped from that requirement.
As previously mentioned, it is possible to get a pickup re-registered as non-commercial if you meet specific requirements, but then you are severally limited with what you can do with the vehicle.

I'll tell you, THAT came in handy durrng the oil embargo in the 70's. They were rationing gas. I don't recall the specifics (Plate ending in odd or even #) But commercial vehicles, TRUCKS were exempt. I was driving a Old 4 banger Datsun (PL521) at the time, made it easy to get gas any day I wanted...

 

[K6CCC]

I'll tell you, THAT came in handy durrng the oil embargo in the 70's. They were rationing gas. I don't recall the specifics (Plate ending in odd or even #) But commercial vehicles, TRUCKS were exempt. I was driving a Old 4 banger Datsun (PL521) at the time, made it easy to get gas any day I wanted...

I remember those days. I bought my first car at age 18 in 1977. I did not remember that commercial trucks were exempt from the even / odd rationing. I do remember that I had personalized plates that had no numbers. The rationing law specified which day plates like that were (I don't remember which). More than once I had gas station employees harass me about it being the wrong day (they were wrong - I knew the law). Part of the even / odd rationing also prohibited stations from limiting the amount of a sale below an actually reasonable amount (don't remember what that was either). I pulled into a station and they had a sign on the pump that said sales were limited to $5.00 - which was well below the allowed limit. When the pump reached $5.00, an employee turned off the pump and told me of the limit. I told him that was illegal and if he did not turn the pump back on, I would call the Sheriff. He said that if I went over to the pay phone, they would push my car into the street. My secret weapon was that I had phone available via ham radio from my car. He thought I was bluffing - this long pre-dated cellphones. I called the local Sheriff and as soon as he heard "Temple City Sheriff" come out of the speaker on my radio, the pump got turned back on.

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