Oregon's per-mile road charge for EVs is 2 cents a mile. Drive 7,250 miles a year and you pay the same as the state's flat EV surcharge of about $145; drive 15,000 and you pay roughly $300 against that $145. That is the whole problem with a per-mile charge in one example: it is cheaper for some drivers and dearer for others, and the state you live in decides whether you get to choose.
Four states let EV owners pay by the mile instead of the flat annual fee. Two more things are changing the picture in 2026: Hawaii has a date to make per-mile mandatory for EVs, and Oregon has a law that gets there in stages. Everywhere else, the flat fee in our state-by-state registration fee ranking is still the only option.
Where it is live
| State | Program | Rate | Protection against paying more than flat | Status |
|---|
| Oregon | OReGO | 2 cents per mile | None we could confirm | Voluntary since 2015; mandatory in stages from July 2027 |
| Utah | Road Usage Charge | 1.25 cents per mile in 2026 | Capped at the $180 flat fee (2026) | Voluntary |
| Virginia | Mileage Choice | Highway use fee divided by 11,600 miles, about 1.2 cents in 2026-27 | Capped at the highway use fee | Voluntary, since 2022 |
| Hawaii | HiRUC | $8 per 1,000 miles (0.8 cents) | Capped at the $50 flat fee | Voluntary until June 30, 2028 |
The rates and caps above are what the states publish, but treat the cents as a snapshot. Oregon's rate is tied to its fuel tax, Virginia's to an indexed formula, and Utah's is scheduled to move (more below).
Oregon: the original, becoming the default
OReGO launched on July 1, 2015, the first program of its kind. An enrolled driver pays the base registration plus 2 cents per mile instead of the EV surcharge. On a two-year registration for an all-electric car, the base fee is $86 for an enrolled driver (before the 2 cents a mile) against $376 for one who is not; the $290 difference is two years of the flat surcharge. At 12,000 miles a year the per-mile charge adds $480 over those two years, so enrolling only pays off for lower-mileage drivers. ODOT reports the surcharge rose $30 a year ($60 for two years) on December 31, 2025 under House Bill 3991, which makes OReGO look better than it used to. Oregon voters rejected the gas tax and registration fee increases that were referred to the ballot in Measure 120 in May 2026, but ODOT lists the $30 EV increase and the expanded road usage charge as outside that referral, so both stand.
HB 3991 also sets the timeline for the choice to narrow. From July 1, 2027, owners of used EVs must pick at renewal between a flat fee and paying by the mile. New EVs follow on January 1, 2028, and hybrids and plug-in hybrids on July 1, 2028. ODOT's OReGO page says enrolled drivers pay the base registration plus the per-mile charge in place of the electric supplemental fee.
One caution specific to Oregon: we could not confirm a cap, so a high-mileage driver can end up paying more per year by the mile than by the flat fee. Run your own number.
Utah: the cap makes it a free option
Utah charges 1.25 cents per mile in 2026, capped at $180 for an annual registration period, which is also the flat EV fee. Because of the cap, enrolling cannot cost you more than the flat fee, and it saves money for anyone driving under 14,400 miles a year ($180 divided by $0.0125).
The rate is set to rise. Utah Code 72-1-213.1 provides 1.5 cents per mile and a $280 annual cap from January 1, 2027, unless the Road Usage Charge commission sets a different rate, then annual CPI adjustments from 2028. A Senate amendment to House Bill 481 in 2026 touched that date (2027 versus 2028) and we could not read the final enrolled bill, so confirm the start date and cap with the Utah DMV before you enroll for 2027. If the 2027 schedule holds, the cap no longer matches the flat fee and the break-even moves to about 18,700 miles ($280 divided by $0.015).
Virginia's Mileage Choice program, live since 2022, takes the annual highway use fee that EV owners otherwise pay and divides it by 11,600, the average miles a Virginia passenger vehicle drives in a year. The fee is $135.63 for July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, which works out to about 1.17 cents a mile by our arithmetic (the state has not published that figure in anything we could reach). Drive fewer than 11,600 miles and you pay less; drive more and you never pay more than the flat fee. About 23,000 vehicles were enrolled as of June 2025. The highway use fee applies to roughly 2 million vehicles, though that count includes hybrids and other efficient non-EVs, so it overstates the EV pool. Enrollment is small either way.
Hawaii: mandatory for EVs in 2028
Hawaii's HiRUC charges $8 per 1,000 miles, capped at the $50 flat fee, with mileage read from the odometer at the annual safety inspection. At a $50 cap the break-even is 6,250 miles a year, and because of the cap, the per-mile option cannot cost more than the flat fee. That changes in 2028: the bill text we found says the choice runs through June 30, 2028, after which per-mile becomes mandatory for EVs and the flat fee goes away. Hawaii law (Act 222 of 2023) also directs the state transportation department to plan a transition of all light-duty vehicles to a road usage charge by 2033.
Who should choose per-mile
The break-even is simple: divide the flat fee by the per-mile rate.
- Under about 6,000 miles a year: per-mile wins in all four states. A second car, a retiree, or a work-from-home household is the typical fit.
- Around 7,250 to 11,000 miles: per-mile still wins in Utah and Virginia. In Oregon the flat fee is already cheaper above about 7,250 miles. Hawaii's cap means per-mile never costs more than flat, at any mileage.
- Over about 14,400 miles: in 2026 Utah's cap makes the two options identical, and Virginia and Hawaii cap at the flat fee. Oregon is the one state where a high-mileage commuter can clearly lose by choosing per-mile.
Per-mile reporting is the cost the dollar figures leave out. You are trading a line on your registration for a device or a photo each year, and in Oregon, a billing relationship with a road charge vendor.
Not live yet
Illinois Senate Bill 1938 would set up a road usage charge advisory committee and a voluntary per-mile pilot for passenger and electric vehicles. We found no enacted program or launch date, and a bill tracker lists the bill as having missed its 2025 deadline; see Illinois. Vermont's Senate Transportation committee took testimony on the Oregon, Virginia and Utah programs in January 2026, and California's Transportation Commission road charge advisory committee heard from ODOT and Utah's transportation department in July 2026. None of those has produced a program.
We do not list other states here. Our state files note road usage or mileage language in several, but we could not confirm an operating program or a signed law in any state beyond the four above, and we would rather leave a state out than guess.
What this means for your charging costs
Whichever structure you pay, it adds a fixed cost on top of cheaper per-mile fuel. We work through the comparison with the home electricity rate in what home charging actually costs. Our state EV incentive roundup covers the other side of the ledger, what your state offers to offset the cost of the charger itself.
Last factually verified: October 26, 2026. Figures were re-checked on October 26, 2026 against ODOT's OReGO and House Bill 3991 pages, the Utah Code (Title 72, Section 213.1), the Virginia DMV highway use fee and Mileage Choice pages, and the Hawaii DOT HiRUC fact sheet (June 2025). Oregon's 2-cent rate, the HB 3991 dates and the $30 increase come from ODOT's own program page and one-pager as excerpted; the $376 two-year total for a non-enrolled electric vehicle is ODOT's $316 table figure plus the $60 increase, and the $86 enrolled total is ODOT's table figure. Utah's 1.25-cent rate and $180 cap, and the 2027 step, are from the Utah Code; the final date is flagged above. Virginia's formula is from the DMV page, the participation figure from a January 2026 state presentation, and the $135.63 fee from our Virginia state file, which checked it against the DMV chart. Hawaii's rate, cap, mileage reporting and July 1, 2028 mandatory date are from the HiRUC fact sheet. Confirm Utah's 2027 schedule and each state's current program rules before you decide. evcharginghelp.com is editorially independent and receives no compensation from any company mentioned.