BALTIMORE — Maryland wants more than a million electric vehicles on the road by 2030, but a new policy adding a $150 annual fee to EV charging ports has advocates worried about slowing progress toward that goal.
Lanny Hartman, an EV driver and advocate, is concerned the fee will unfairly burden businesses installing Level 2 charging stations, which are typically found at grocery stores and apartment complexes rather than the superchargers seen at gas stations.
Watch as advocates speak out against the charging port fees
"The issue is with the weights and measures registration fee is that it unfairly penalizes people who are putting in level 2 charging stations. Those don't generally get a lot of use nor revenue," Hartman said.
He argues these slower chargers often struggle to break even on their investment.
"Often, they don't even break even, so the $150 per port yearly fee is going to burden them," Hartman said.
The Maryland Department of Agriculture's Weights and Measurements Department is tasked with regulating EV chargers. The department doesn't receive state funding and instead relies on fees to cover inspection costs.
Alison Wilkinson, chief of weights and measures for MDA, explains that testing EV charging equipment is significantly more expensive than inspecting traditional gas pumps.
"The actual expense to test and inspect EVSE devices is more expensive than gas pumps," Wilkinson said.
The specialized equipment required for testing also comes with a hefty price tag.
"So, a normal hand carry prover volumetric standard, to test a gas pump costs $1,800. One piece of equipment to verify an EVSE device without the vehicle to carry it in is upwards of $135,000," Wilkinson said.
Despite the department's justification for the fees, Hartman believes Maryland should wait before implementing this policy.
"I think Maryland's trying to get ahead of this [and] wants to be the first in the nation perhaps to do this, and I think it's wiser that we wait a couple of years," Hartman said.
Commercial chargers have until the end of this year to register their EV charging ports with the state, and the fees will begin next year.
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