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You are woefully incorrect. in most places EV's road taxes are massively disproportionate to the amount of road tax an ICE vehicle would pay. Here in Texas, I

You are woefully incorrect. in most places EV's road taxes are massively disproportionate to the amount of road tax an ICE vehicle would pay. Here in Texas, I would ordinarily pay about $30/year in road taxes on gasoline driving a 30mpg vehicle 12,000/mi anually. But I have an EV instead so instead I pay: $500 in surcharge for the first year of registration and $200 surcharge for every year thereafter. Oh whoops I misspoke; I actually have 3 EVs so despite being one person, I pay approximately 25x more road tax than the average driver here. I'm not necessarily complaining about the /amount/ of tax but the simple fact that it is both disproportionately applied and far too low overall. The state should charge based on actual mileage, but since they just eliminated state inspections, good luck with that. Second best alternative is to make it a flat surcharge for all.

JasserInicide 2y ago
I pay approximately 25x more road tax than the average driver here. But you're not, it's to make up for the revenue TX would get from you via the gas tax. Also EVs are heavier on average therefore do more damage to the road so paying for that too.
- Brian_K_White 2y ago
  And rubber dust.
- gorkish 2y ago
  I have driven my vehicles 70,442 actual miles since Jan 1, 2018. (Thanks to TeslaFi I have actual data -- I didn't drive all of these miles in TX, and while I have that data, I'm not going to be pedantic about it.) The revenue to the state is $0.15/gal towards the highway fund and $0.05/gal towards education. Since the EV surcharge does not fund education, I don't feel it is appropriate to include this portion in the comparison. So with my actual driving data in mind, here's what I would have paid if my 3 vehicles were 30mpg ICE cars: 70,442 mi / 7 years / 30mpg = 335 gal * $0.15 = $50/year to the Texas highway fund. Vs my actual paid: $200 (2023) * 3 cars + $200 (2024) * 3 cars = $1200 I therefore concede that my initial estimate was a bit high. I paid 24x more tax than I would have if I didn't own EV's, but this was only 20x more than the average driver due to my driving habits. Had I not purchased and registered my vehicles before the surcharge took effect, I would have been worse off due to the $500 surcharge on initial registration: $500 (first year registration) * 3 + $200 * 3 = $2100
nkurz 2y ago
It's a good argument, but is your math right? Texas looks to have a state tax of 20 cents a gallon, plus a federal tax of 18 cents a gallon. 12000 miles at 30 mpg is 400 gallons. The state portion is thus $80/year, and the combined is $152. Which leaves your argument mostly intact, but off by ~2.5x or ~5x depending on how you count. Or did I mess up the math myself? Also, it appears the average driven per vehicle per year in Texas is more like 16000 miles (https://www.trustedchoice.com/insurance-articles/wheels-wings-motors/average-miles-driven-per-year/ https://www.trustedchoice.com/insurance-articles/wheels-wing...). This would make the $200/year surcharge close to equivalent for the total missing gas taxes (state and federal) for a vehicle that is likely heavier than average.
- gorkish 2y ago
  Yeah sorry about that I was ballparking it pretty good; your numbers are truer. But if we are going to take it into this territory, we do need to break down those taxes a little bit to make a proper comparison. On the state tax side, 75% of the fee goes to the highway fund, so @400gal the actual road tax portion is $60. The remainder goes to education per the Texas constitution, but the EV surcharge does not fund education, so I do not feel it is fair to include this portion in the comparison. The federal fuel tax applies to fuel used for electricity generation as well, and is passed to the consumer as a surcharge. I'd argue that EVs are already paying the same federal fuel tax when they are getting their electricity from taxable fuel sources. Even so, it's not the state's job to collect it, and Texas also doesn't pay any of the EV surcharges to the federal government. Because of this, I'd argue that the federal fuel tax is completely out of scope. If the federal government decides this is unbalanced and needs to be corrected, they can change their own tax code. Finally, don't forget that the first year surcharge is $500. I amortized the total registration fees over 5 years as 500+200x4 = $260/yr. So at 16k miles @30mpg = 400gal * 0.15/gal = $60 in state road taxes for an ICE car vs $260 for an EV, or stated another way the EV pays the equivalent road tax of driving an ICE car 56,000 miles per year.

JasserInicide 2y ago

I pay approximately 25x more road tax than the average driver here. But you're not, it's to make up for the revenue TX would get from you via the gas tax. Also EVs are heavier on average therefore do more damage to the road so paying for that too.

Brian_K_White 2y ago
And rubber dust.
gorkish 2y ago
I have driven my vehicles 70,442 actual miles since Jan 1, 2018. (Thanks to TeslaFi I have actual data -- I didn't drive all of these miles in TX, and while I have that data, I'm not going to be pedantic about it.) The revenue to the state is $0.15/gal towards the highway fund and $0.05/gal towards education. Since the EV surcharge does not fund education, I don't feel it is appropriate to include this portion in the comparison. So with my actual driving data in mind, here's what I would have paid if my 3 vehicles were 30mpg ICE cars: 70,442 mi / 7 years / 30mpg = 335 gal * $0.15 = $50/year to the Texas highway fund. Vs my actual paid: $200 (2023) * 3 cars + $200 (2024) * 3 cars = $1200 I therefore concede that my initial estimate was a bit high. I paid 24x more tax than I would have if I didn't own EV's, but this was only 20x more than the average driver due to my driving habits. Had I not purchased and registered my vehicles before the surcharge took effect, I would have been worse off due to the $500 surcharge on initial registration: $500 (first year registration) * 3 + $200 * 3 = $2100

nkurz 2y ago

It's a good argument, but is your math right? Texas looks to have a state tax of 20 cents a gallon, plus a federal tax of 18 cents a gallon. 12000 miles at 30 mpg is 400 gallons. The state portion is thus $80/year, and the combined is $152. Which leaves your argument mostly intact, but off by ~2.5x or ~5x depending on how you count. Or did I mess up the math myself? Also, it appears the average driven per vehicle per year in Texas is more like 16000 miles (https://www.trustedchoice.com/insurance-articles/wheels-wings-motors/average-miles-driven-per-year/ https://www.trustedchoice.com/insurance-articles/wheels-wing...). This would make the $200/year surcharge close to equivalent for the total missing gas taxes (state and federal) for a vehicle that is likely heavier than average.

gorkish 2y ago
Yeah sorry about that I was ballparking it pretty good; your numbers are truer. But if we are going to take it into this territory, we do need to break down those taxes a little bit to make a proper comparison. On the state tax side, 75% of the fee goes to the highway fund, so @400gal the actual road tax portion is $60. The remainder goes to education per the Texas constitution, but the EV surcharge does not fund education, so I do not feel it is fair to include this portion in the comparison. The federal fuel tax applies to fuel used for electricity generation as well, and is passed to the consumer as a surcharge. I'd argue that EVs are already paying the same federal fuel tax when they are getting their electricity from taxable fuel sources. Even so, it's not the state's job to collect it, and Texas also doesn't pay any of the EV surcharges to the federal government. Because of this, I'd argue that the federal fuel tax is completely out of scope. If the federal government decides this is unbalanced and needs to be corrected, they can change their own tax code. Finally, don't forget that the first year surcharge is $500. I amortized the total registration fees over 5 years as 500+200x4 = $260/yr. So at 16k miles @30mpg = 400gal * 0.15/gal = $60 in state road taxes for an ICE car vs $260 for an EV, or stated another way the EV pays the equivalent road tax of driving an ICE car 56,000 miles per year.