Congress Wants You to Pay $130 a Year Just to Drive an Electric Car

https://insideevs.com/news/796222/ev-fee-gas-tax-house-bill-2026/

by 01-_- • 2 months ago

20 58 2 months ago

mattbee2• 2 months ago

Sounds like a bargain. In the UK we'll be paying £0.03 per mile from April 2028.

smt88• 2 months ago

This is a direct replacement for the gasoline taxes which pay for our roads, so $130 for most drivers is actually a bargain in the US too.

EVs are also much harsher on roads because of their weight.

cosmic_cheese• 2 months ago

The weight gap between EV and ICE is often exaggerated.

In fact, within ICE vehicles, the gap between sedans/hatchbacks/compact crossovers and giant SUVs and trucks is larger, and yet for some reason we aren’t taxing drivers of Suburbans and F-150s accordingly.

If we applied this logic fairly we should be pushing people to right-size their vehicles regardless of fuel type.

manwe1502• 2 months ago

Redditors claim there is no evidence the weight is relevant to the wear rate of the roads, since weights have become comparable to a similar car and generally less than the average ICE truck, but that the superior acceleration of EV can be harsher on intersections https://www.reddit.com/r/electriccars/comments/1do2rtu/what_...

mikestew3• 2 months ago

so $130 for most drivers is actually a bargain in the US too.

I’d have to drive an EV about 35% more miles each year to make it to break even on tax versus our 35 mpg ICE car. It’s no bargain, it’s punishment for driving an EV.

EVs are also much harsher on roads because of their weight.

My Hyundai Ioniq 5 weighs less than the most popular vehicle in the US: the F-150. I don’t see those getting special taxes.

neilcj• 2 months ago

Speak for your Tesla. My i3 weighs slightly less than my partner's Mini Cooper.

tzs3• 2 months ago

$130 is the amount of tax that an average person would pay if they drove in ICE car that got under 19 mpg. No way is that a bargain.

csomar• 2 months ago

That seems like a more logical system? You should be paying miles x vehicle weight since that’s what tear roads.

embedding-shape2• 2 months ago

Does it matter if the car is electric or not so much for road tearing? I'd thought the wheels and engine capabilities would matter more, but I'm not car expert.

thrill• 2 months ago

18 wheeler type trucks do over 80% of the damage to roads. They could pay for it all and we'd all simply share the cost in the price of goods, and collection would be vastly simpler and cheaper.

But, there wouldn't be the opportunity for asking for political favors, so don't expect anyone who likes you having to beg to champion such a process.

xdennis• 2 months ago

But how does the government know how much you drove?

missedthecue• 2 months ago

Odometer check during annual inspection

nephihaha3• 2 months ago

More state discrimination against people in Scotland and rural communities...

xethos2• 2 months ago

I mean sure, it's not perfectly, 100% fair, but do you have a better plan, or just complaints? Because rural populations seem to want to have their cake and eat it too - living in a rural area to save money and have additional space, without wanting to pay for the extremely expensive roads that enable their lifestyle, or even to admit that it's infeasible for everyone to live that way

More driving both increases the likelyhood of damages to vehicles or people, and makes this a useage-based fee - so while not perfect, it's the closest we can realistically get without becoming mired in PR mis-understandings or complications, technicalities, and enforcement difficulties.

semiquaver2• 2 months ago

Absolutely dishonest framing. Road maintenance is funded via gas tax. Thus EV owners should have to pay a different way. They certainly use the roads, so why would this be controversial?

eli2• 2 months ago

The headline is intentionally inflammatory, but that's pretty much what the article says.

FWIW, the gas tax also only pays a fraction of the actual cost of maintaining roads.

mikestew3• 2 months ago

Road maintenance is funded via gas tax.

Federal gas tax is generally used for new roads, not road maintenance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_Trust_Fund

If you want an “honest framing”, raise the federal fuel tax to match inflation, then we’ll talk about EVs. Plain and simple, this is just a move to punish EV use.

convolvatron• 2 months ago

my understand was that the federal govt won't be collecting this tax. they are mandating that the states collect it, and if they refuse there is punitive language about withholding federal transportation grants.

semiquaver2• 2 months ago

I read your link and it does not support your assertion. In fact it implies the opposite:

[…] attempts […] to suspend the federal gas tax, without which […] would have halted efforts to repair and expand the Federal highway system.

(emphasis mine)

Did you have a specific quote you intended to point to to support your claim?

baggachipz• 2 months ago

I already get ~fined~ charged an EV tax by my county and state. So now I get to be triple-punished for having an EV?

not_the_fda2• 2 months ago

They should get rid of the gas tax and tax all vehicles by weight and miles driven.

nephihaha3• 2 months ago

This would effectively attack people for living in rural areas, rather than urban sprawl because they have to travel further...

why_at• 2 months ago

I'm a totally biased EV owner, and I agree that it's only fair that EV owners pay for the roads they use.

But it's annoying to see the US government find a new way to discourage one of the most clear cut ways to reduce fossil fuel usage. If things were fair, we would be taxing gas for its contribution to air pollution and climate change.

We should be doing everything we can to encourage EV adoption, but the current administration is interested in doing the exact opposite. They apparently found a way to do so which gets bipartisan support.

delfinom• 2 months ago

Let in Chinese EVs.

Sure, Detroit which is on life support from making shitty overpriced cars would cease to exist. But EVs would take over the US in just 5 years.

iAMkenough2• 2 months ago

How many miles of federal roads do you drive in a week?

throwforfeds• 2 months ago

Now do parking

heathrow83829• 2 months ago

flat rate taxes are never fair. It should be based on a per use basis. either have a tire tax or some other per mile use tax.

amanaplanacanal• 2 months ago

Switch everything to a weight-mile tax, if we want to be fair.

archontes• 2 months ago

Nonlinear.

Congress Wants You to Pay $130 a Year Just to Drive an Electric Car

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