Plug-In Sites

The City of Beverly Hills, California has updated their Electric Vehicle Charging Policy which they say will encourage more efficient use of the City’s 35 public EV charging stations.

The new policy takes effect on April 2, 2018 and is said to help prepare for increasing demand for the City’s EV charging infrastructure and to encourage more efficient use of the 35 publicly available EV charging stations at City facilities. The 35 stations at 15 locations include a total of 59 Level 2 connectors.

Beverly Hills’ EV charging stations are reserved exclusively for battery-only electric vehicles that are connected and actively charging under the new policy. All other vehicles including plug-in hybrids, gas-only vehicles and any BEV not actively charging may be penalized by a fine and/or towed at the owner’s expense.
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Lawmakers in Virginia, Maryland and other places are considering electric vehicle legislation and laws related to EV charging stations in 2018. These bills include enacting or repealing tax credits for plug-in vehicles and EV charging equipment, anti-ICEing laws and legislation authorizing the installation of charging equipment at multi-unit housing and office buildings. We are keeping track of those bills as they are introduced and following their progress here.

Electric vehicle buyers in Maryland that missed out on getting a state excise tax credit in fiscal year 2017 because the program had depleted its funds, may get that money after all if a bill sponsored by Senator Roger Manno passes.

Maryland SB177 would allow a credit against the excise tax imposed for a plug–in electric vehicle if an application for the credit was filed during fiscal year 2017 (7/1/2016 to 6/30/2017) but the credit was not allowed due to a limitation on the total amount of credits that may be allowed each fiscal year.

The funds devoted to the Maryland Electric Vehicle Excise Tax Credit program have usually been depleted before the end of recent fiscal years. Funds for fiscal year 2017 were depleted by September, 2016. Normally, the tax credits would be applied retroactively when funds were released at the beginning of the next fiscal year.
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We reached out to Virginia Delegate David Bulova of Fairfax County who has introduced bill HB922 that would give authority required under Dillon’s Rule to enable local governments, state universities, community colleges, and parks to operate retail fee-based electric vehicle charging stations. It also exempts localities that own or operate fee-based EV charging stations from being considered a public utility or service company under Virginia regulations.

As introduced, Virginia HB922 would require the charging stations to be restricted to employees and authorized visitors only. However, that restriction could be removed from the bill according to the sponsor. HB922 would amend a law passed in 2017 that gives authority to school boards to operate retail fee-based EV charging stations on their property. § 22.1-131.

We had a few questions that we posed to Delegate Bulova who kindly responded. His answers are highlighted in red below.

Questions and Answers On HB922 with Delegate Bulova

1. Is this bill simply to give enabling authority to localities to install fee-based EV charging stations pursuant to the Dillon Rule or is there another purpose or purposes?

Correct, because of the Dillon Rule, local governments need authorization from the General Assembly to install fee-based EV charging stations. This bill not only provides this authority to local governments, but also state universities, community colleges, and parks.
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