Free parking for electric vehicles at state airports, along with other perks that have been in place for the past eight years, are set to expire at the end of the month, state officials said.
The state Department of Transportation on Thursday reminded EV owners that free parking at state airports, as well as at most state and county parking lots and meters due to a law enacted in 2012, is due to sunset Tuesday.
Starting Wednesday, HDOT says, EV owners will be charged a fee for all of the above.
The state Highways Division, however, is working to continue offering EV owners the use of High Occupancy Vehicle lanes regardless of the number of passengers beyond Tuesday because the Federal Highway Administration supports it.
Act 168, which was signed into law by Gov. Neil Abercrombie in 2012, offered EV owners special electric vehicle license plates, which gave them numerous perks, including the free parking as well as use of the HOV lanes, to provide incentives for purchasing the cars.
At state airports, HDOT estimates, EV owners received an estimated $4 million a year in free parking prior to the pandemic. The maximum parking amount for a 24-hour period at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu is $18 per day, and $15 per day at other airports.
Many EV owners in Hawaii were disappointed the perks are ending, despite legislative efforts to keep them going.
Delphine Homerowski of Kailua, who owns a Nissan Leaf, said free parking at other lots besides the airport was a major incentive for going electric.
“I think everyone knew it wasn’t going to be forever, but I think it’s too early,” she said. “You don’t have that many EVs in the state yet to be removing that incentive. The parking is a big incentive for a lot of people.”
Why not offer a discount for EV owners, she suggested, instead of taking the perks away completely?
Herb Law of Honolulu, owner of a Tesla and BMW i3, said it was disappointing to see the perks ending, particularly after investing in the higher, upfront costs of EVs to support renewable energy.
“We bought into the philosophy of all electric,” said Law. “We travel interisland, and going to the airport for a day or two, that’s a great perk. That’s probably the one we will miss the most.”
He suggested that the perks be given to all-electric vehicles, rather than plug-in hybrids using a combination of fuel and batteries.
The expiration of perks comes as the number of registered passenger EVs in the state continues to grow, at least according to the monthly energy report from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
DBEDT’s May report found that the number of passenger EVs in the state grew to 12,140, up 30.8% (2,856 vehicles) from the same month last year, and an increase of 152 vehicles, or 1.3%, from April. This was on top of increases in March as well as April.
By contrast, the number of registered passenger gasoline vehicles in May fell 0.3% to 1,030,389 compared with the same period last year, and was 0.7%, or 7,685 fewer vehicles less, than April.
This was lower than the average of the previous six months, according to chief state economist Eugene Tian, although there was another month-to-moth drop in registrations in June 2016.
“Vehicle registration seems correlated with people’s behavior during the pandemic,” said Tian. “If there are no new car sales, the decrease in registrations may reflect people delaying their renewal of safety check and registration after expiration.”
Still, EVs in Hawaii represent only 1.1% of the 1,074,945 registered passenger vehicles in the state.
Melissa Miyashiro, Blue Planet Foundation’s managing director of strategy and policy, said clean-vehicle incentives are still needed to achieve the state’s climate change goals.
“We’re still concerned that scrapping incentives for EVs will have a direct impact on customers’ buying decisions,” she said. “Unlike a dozen or so other states, Hawaii lacks a state rebate or tax credit that can make the upfront cost of EVs more affordable.”
In addition, EV owners in Hawaii must now pay an additional $50 surcharge with their registration fees.
“The Legislature’s abandonment of all clean vehicle incentives this year is at odds with our critical climate goals,” said Miyashiro in an email. “We dispute the assertion that the state is losing millions of dollars due to free parking at the airport; it’s unlikely that vehicles would continue to park there without the perk, so they probably won’t see a corresponding revenue increase with the parking benefit gone.”
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SOME NUMBERS FOR MAY
>> Registered passenger EVs in the state: 12,140, a 30.8% jump from May 2019
>> Registered passenger hybrids in the state: 23,639, a 5.7% drop from May 2019
>> Registered passenger vehicles in the state: 1,074,945, a decrease of 2,250 vehicles (0.2%) from May 2019 and a drop of 7,784 vehicles (0.7%) from April 2020
>> The regular gas price in Hawaii averaged $3.17 per gallon, a decrease of 46.9 cents per gallon (12.9%) from the same month last year. Still, it was $1.28 per gallon (68.3%) higher than the national average.
Source: DBEDT’s Monthly Energy Trend Highlights, May 2020
