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When driving a car with internal combustion engine, you pay a lot (in Europe especially a lot!) taxes in the gas price. This means that all the people driving E
by p0w3n3d 2y ago
When driving a car with internal combustion engine, you pay a lot (in Europe especially a lot!) taxes in the gas price. This means that all the people driving EV would (so far) avoid this tax and this means that this must be put to an end!!!!1
So this move might be also about taxing the EVs (just a tin-foil-hat wearing conspiracy theory maker here, don't take my words too seriously)
- exmadscientist 2y agoI don't think you have to go that far. I think the NEC is beholden to the people who make this stuff. Right now I have a 14-50R in my garage (I don't even use it, I have it shut off at the panel; I don't have an EV, this is just new construction). The standard breaker is $18.98 right now at the big orange store. The GFCI version they're trying to make mandatory is $190.68. I think that says all you need to know. (And before anyone says they must cost that much more to make... they do not. I have designed GFI and AFI devices. You need to add a circuit board, yes, a pretty rugged one. The ordinary breaker is all mechanical. But that does not cost $170 more to do.)
- Ekaros 2y agoThat is amazing price for something that millions of will be made each year. Just calculate how many of them are needed in total and then take replacement even every 50 years or something. It scales to large number needed.
- eecc 2y agoIndeed, and this mass-produced stuff is pretty simple compared to an IC chip. Who are handcrafting these devices, blonde virgin maidens at night under the shine of a full moon? :D
- michaelt 2y agoHere in the UK, we call them RCDs or RCBOs, and they cost £18: https://www.toolstation.com/bg-compact-rcbo/p81865 https://www.toolstation.com/bg-compact-rcbo/p81865
- exmadscientist 2y agoBasic GFCIs are also around the same price in the US. The discussion in the article is about mandating that weirdo breakers also contain GFCI/AFCI components. Unsurprisingly, manufacturers charge a lot more for the oddball parts. (My load center's vendor also seems to be particularly bad with the price gouging, but I didn't exactly choose it, so in that respect it's perfectly representative of what gets chosen for people.)
- alibarber 2y agoDon’t worry - in my country (Finland) they already thought of that and instead of the emissions based annual road tax, which would of course be zero, they managed to add a ‘tax on driving power’ to electric cars. Notwithstanding that electricity for any use already has a per KWh tax added. Plus sales tax of course.
- eecc 2y agoWell, in Italy the road tax has always been on engine power. Indeed the VAT is a nuisance, actually the most regressive form of taxation possible: rich people with enough income who can afford to spend only a fraction of it, end up paying VAT accordingly; while low income citizens who have to spend all their salary end up with an additional, significant tax burden on their whole net income.