3 ms·

I’m unclear why the given justification, that EVs don’t pay gas taxes, is insufficient to justify an additional tax to support road maintenance.

• alkonaut 5y ago
  In Texas cars don’t pay gas taxes either effectively. There is a tiny tax of 20c/gal. but that’s nowhere near this (another poster made a calculation of $60/yr roughly). Just make this $150/yr, charge $1/gal tax for ICE cars, that should make it about even. For comparison I pay $1500 yearly road tax and $4/gal in taxes alone at the pump and I find it too cheap to pollute still.
• agrajag 5y ago
  A counterargument would be that cars cause basically no road damage and it’s all caused by trucks. Studies have put the damage of a single truck at weight limit in the US to be equal to that of 9600 cars[1]. [1] https://www.gao.gov/assets/ced-79-94.pdf https://www.gao.gov/assets/ced-79-94.pdf
  • _jal 5y ago
    One of many hidden handouts to favored industries. Socialism for me, but not for thee.
  • Consultant32452 5y ago
    Does most of the damage to roads come from the vehicles driving on it or other things like temperature fluctuations?
    • chrismcb 5y ago
      Driving does a lot of damage. While temp fluctuations cause damage, it is nothing compared to what a vehicle can do.
  • adamcstephens 5y ago
    A counter argument is that we have a lot of road capacity for all the cars. I agree that heavier vehicles should pay a greater share, but we don’t have eight lane highways just for trucks.
• philipkglass 5y ago
  The idea is sound but the tax appears to be disproportionate to what internal combustion vehicles pay. Texas taxes gas at 20 cents per gallon: https://www.thecentersquare.com/texas/texas-drivers-pay-20-cents-per-gallon-in-state-gas-taxes/article_c1c3ecd4-640e-11ea-97b8-03e422bf4d6f.html https://www.thecentersquare.com/texas/texas-drivers-pay-20-c... A Texan driver would have to buy 2000 gallons of gas a year to pay $400 in gas taxes to Texas. That seems pretty high when the average Texan drives 16347 miles per year [1]; it implies fuel economy of only 8.2 MPG at average travel distance. Even the big Ford F-450 has better average fuel economy than that. [1] https://www.caranddriver.com/research/a32880477/average-mileage-per-year/ https://www.caranddriver.com/research/a32880477/average-mile...
• stkdump 5y ago
  The article argues that the EV tax is much higher than gas taxes, and even more so if you include taxes paid for electricity.