wemay
Site Donor 2023
LOL... Sounds like the guys here in Florida.
BUILD America 250 Act - EV Tax
- Thread starter rijndael
- Start date
As long as I don't get taxed for the EVs it's all good. 
While I don't currently own an EV, I can see it happening in the medium term. I don't think it's unreasonable for EV owners to contribute to road maintenance via taxes. Given the option, I would prefer a fixed cost tax attached to registration renewal. The government will get their money somehow, and it seems one alternative would be for them to mandate "smart-metered" EV chargers at residences, and lock the cars down so they won't charge from anything but such a charger. That's not practical to implement retroactively, but it could be done moving forward and I definitely don't want that.
They've been making some progress this year. One of the support walls collapsed a couple years ago and set them back. There is a guy on youtube devoted to this construction its debacles.
Are you old enough to remember when 295 ended in Bordentown and picked up again in Hamilton due to ancient Indian burial grounds?
JHZR2
Staff member
No, I didn’t start driving 295 until around 2000. Before that anytime we were going south it was on the TP.
The federal gas tax take has been inadequate to keep up with the rising costs of road maintenance and has not been increased since 1993.
Maybe the time has come to rethink the whole concept of fuel taxes.
Maybe we should migrate to a mileage and EPA inertia weight class based use tax for all motor vehicles?
This would be fairer, in that it would treat all vehicles the same whether EV, PHEV, HEV or ICE. This would seem more fair than any arbitrary levy on EVs, HEVs and PHEVs, which many states have adopted, including mine and would recognize the need to change the basis of revenue collection in an era of changing sources of power for road vehicles.
It would also directly apply to the amount of road use made with each registered vehicle.
Maybe the time has come to rethink the whole concept of fuel taxes.
Maybe we should migrate to a mileage and EPA inertia weight class based use tax for all motor vehicles?
This would be fairer, in that it would treat all vehicles the same whether EV, PHEV, HEV or ICE. This would seem more fair than any arbitrary levy on EVs, HEVs and PHEVs, which many states have adopted, including mine and would recognize the need to change the basis of revenue collection in an era of changing sources of power for road vehicles.
It would also directly apply to the amount of road use made with each registered vehicle.
Ok so you are correct at 18.4c per gal federal tax rate. I was just throwing the rough combined tax because it does effect locally as well. My Point still stands that they need to pay to use the roads non EV drivers are paying to use. I live in TX so I am aware of the surcharge EV's pay at registration and that isn't enough as well.
Sure that's fine but some of these levies are more than what an owner of a SUV would pay and what someone who only drives a few thousand a year. I drive my car about 6k miles/yr. Almost exclusively highway. There's no way I rack up $250 in federal gas tax.
Good. Should be higher as they typically weigh morevthan comparible gas vehicles. There are enough ev's now that they need to pay road taxes. When there were a couple thousand ev's total in the entire USA the road usage was virtually nill.
Sounds good - EVs should pay for the use of the Federal Highway system and currently, they don’t. Those EV drivers are subsidized by those who buy fuel.
What would be more fair is a use tax, based on annual miles.
But this is a start.
There are no federal taxes on electricity. Anything your paying is state and local.
The fed does subsidize the grid however - through direct expenditures and tax credits for grid upgrades. As they should, we all use the grid.
Death and taxes are your only assurances.
That is a good point for sure
I think paying the same road tax is pretty fair for EVs.
But unless your local electrical grid is powered by coal almost exclusively, EV's have quite a bit lower lifetime energy consumption/pollution production, including the additional energy costs to make the vehicles and the batteries.
https://economics.td.com/ca-lifecycle-emissions-electric-vs-gasoline-vehicles
This graph will change with your local grid's energy production fuel mix, but unless its as inefficient as running a gas generator on your driveway to charge a EV, the grid is usually far more efficient, than a vehicle engine, at turning fossil fuels into vehicle miles.
Fair? You would need annual mileage, vehicle weight, etc. CA charges a RIF (Road Improvement Tax); I think I paid about $170. I think they are working on a per-mile based system. Maybe both? Sheesh, what's a poor boy to do?
SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
Does this truly surprise even one of us? Uncle Sam WILL take his money from any and everyone he can. Just a matter of time.
Yeah, sometimes he overlooks a thing or two. But it is never for long before they place the target on anyone they can.
Yeah, sometimes he overlooks a thing or two. But it is never for long before they place the target on anyone they can.
Based simply on my opinion that this makes sense, weight and mileage, means it will likely never happen. And I could see discounts or incentives for commercial OTR shipping, theres probably some economy of scale which would be economically responsible.
One thing that also muddies the water is how the laws and bills passed often dont make the item taxed directly applicable to the intended purpose - there can be side cuts and diversions too. If I’m not mistaken, some of our local gas tax is funneled off for schools?
