Washington’s electric vehicle sales tax break set to end

SEATTLE – Washington state’s sales tax exemption for new electric vehicles is expected to end sometime this summer after efforts to extend the break stalled during the recent legislative session.

The current exemption expires in June 2019 or once 7,500 electric vehicles have been registered with the state – whichever comes first. That number hit 6,843 last week.

A bill to extend the exemption to 2021 and lift the cap passed the House in February. But it didn’t make it out of the Senate before the short session ended March 8.

General Motors, Tesla, Ford and others testified in support of the measure.

The Sierra Club, Transportation Choices and bike groups opposed it because the money would have come from the state’s multimodal transportation account that pays for transit and other projects.

The current tax break applies to the first $32,000 of an eligible new electric vehicle.