SB5092 – Expanding the sales and use tax exemption for plug-in vehicles to include regular hybrids.
Prime Sponsor – Senator King (R; 14th District; Yakima)
Current status – Referred to the Senate Committee on Ways and Means.
Next step would be – Scheduling a hearing.
Legislative tracking page for the bill.

Summary –
The current sales and use tax exemption applies to new and used cars, light duty trucks, and medium passenger vehicles that are exclusively powered by a clean alternative fuel (ie battery full-electrics and fuel cell vehicles). It also applies to plug-in hybrids that can go at least 30 miles on the battery. The bill would remove the thirty mile requirement. It would add a provision which says that the exemption would also apply to “vehicles that are classified as hybrid electric and gasoline vehicles but not plug-in hybrid vehicles.”

The bill says the exemption would apply to vehicles in the expanded current category “or” vehicles in this new second category. That second category isn’t very clear. It sounds as if it’s excluding plug-in hybrids from the exemption. However, since the expanded current category still clearly includes those, I think the phrase I quoted is just a clumsy way of trying to make it clear that the expanded exemption would also apply to regular hybrids, like the Prius, not just plug-in hybrids.