Rapidly advancing technologies may make driving a gasoline powered car to school or work a thing of the past, as an electric car registration bill passed through the state Legislature last week.

The bill was proposed by three Republican legislators on the coattails of previous legislation that required Neighborhood Electric Vehicles to be licensed through individual municipalities.

After receiving bipartisan support, the bill passed with a voice vote in the Assembly and was also unanimously passed in the Senate. The new bill permits Wisconsin residents to register NEVs with Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

With gasoline prices surpassing $3 per gallon and oil at $97 a barrel, there is no end to the price increases in sight, according to Ryan Smith, policy advisor for Sen. Cowles, R-Green Bay.

NEVs – small, battery-powered cars – serve as an alternative to gasoline-powered vehicles. With a maximum speed of about 25 miles per hour, NEVs are allowed to operate only on roads with speed limits of 35 miles per hour or less and can travel between 30 and 60 miles on a single battery charge and emit no pollution.

"Economically, they will end up paying for themselves," Smith said.

The new legislation was proposed to fix problems stemming from the earlier legislation requiring NEVs to be registered through municipalities, Kurt Simatic, staff member for Albers, said in an e-mail to The Badger Herald.

"[The new bill] would eliminate municipal licensing of NEVs and replace it with a statewide registration system administered by the Department of Transportation," Simatic said in the e-mail.

The $23 biennial registration fee for a NEV, Simatic said, would be identical to that of a moped, but NEVs would not be required to pay the environmental impact fee and supplemental title fee required from car owners.

The cost of registering a car in Wisconsin, however, has increased from $55 to $75 in the 2007-09 Wisconsin state budget.

Despite the legislation, neither Albers nor Cowles own an NEV.

"Although Representative Albers does not personally own a NEV, she believes that they are an environmentally ? friendly and low ? cost alternative to local transportation needs," Simatic said.

These small, environmentally-friendly cars decrease traffic congestion and improve parking availability , both of which are problems in Madison, Cowles said in a statement Friday.

"[NEVs are] immensely practical," said University of Wisconsin Engineering Professor Robert Lorenz. "We’ll all be driving them in a few years."