Electric car owners face hidden costs. There’s an understandable reason.

My wife, Momo, and I recently leased an electric vehicle — a Kia EV6.

We got more familiar with a new routine of charging, as Momo has learned to schedule and finesse the charging times to minimize costs and maximize battery use. And we timed our closing on the car ahead of the expiring federal EV and alternative fuel vehicle tax credits.

But when the vehicle’s annual registration came up, the fee was nearly 10 times what we are used to paying on our combustible-engine Ford Edge.

Noncommercial EVs and AFVs pay nearly $230 per year to the state of Georgia, whereas gas-powered autos pay about $20. But there’s good reason for the sticker shock.

“Governments are running into a problem with cars getting more fuel efficient. The more fuel efficient they get, the less gas tax they produce,” U.S. News & World Report automotive editor John Vincent said. “You’re not burning as many gallons of fuel. So, when you have hybrids, plug-in hybrids and EVs, they’re not spinning off the gas tax.”

States use gas tax funds to pay for infrastructure, which all drivers use. Georgia’s tax is about 34 cents per gallon. But as modern technology allows combustion vehicles to stretch their tanks, and as more people use cars not powered by fossil fuels, governments are having to get creative.

“It seems like every time a state’s legislature goes into session, they change that up,” Vincent said.

He said he does not believe these high fees are punitive or meant to discourage people from buying electric and alternative fuel vehicles. although fuel-efficiency regulations have become more lax during the Trump administration, even more eco-friendly states are taxing EVs.

Georgia also charges a tax on public electric vehicle chargers — a few cents per kilowatt-hour — which is the most analogous model to how they collect gas fees.

States are building more toll lanes and roads, which generate demand-based fees for using those routes. They then can also collect when tourists use those streets, just as they would with a gas tax.

Another proposed way states could collect a demand-based tax is by tracking miles and then charging car owners like a taxi cab would. A miles-traveled tax would charge drivers equally and potentially help bridge the funding gap from the shrinking fuel tax.

But this is unsurprisingly controversial.