

I didn’t read the article, fwiw. EVs should be taxed.
I’m already taxed on my EV at the state level. The article you didn’t read would add additional federal taxes. I’m not opposed to paying my fair share to maintain roads. The problem is these EV tax levels are WAY OVER the fair share for EV drivers.
US infrastucture is paid for by taxes on fuel at the pump, so all EVs do is destroy roads.
The problem is proportion. The EV, lets call them “road taxes”, are a static number, and that number is VERY HIGH.
Lets assume the average car gets 30 miles/gallon. My current state EV tax is $200/year. The total fuel tax (state and federal) where I live is 38.5 cents/gallon. If we do the math EVs are paying the tax on the equivalent driving of 15,584 miles/year.
The article you didn’t read talks about the GOP wanting to put an additional $250/year tax on EVs at the federal level. So using the same metrics as in the example before an EV would be paying the tax on the equivalent driving of 36,065 miles/year.
To add insult to injury, I drive less than 9k miles a year.
Because these are static taxes and not based on actual use, actual road damage, there’s nothing a consumer can change in behavior to lower the tax except to buy a gasoline car instead.
This also says nothing to the argument that while, yes “all vehicles destroy roads”, a passenger vehicle does a tiny fraction of the damage of a giant 18-wheeler (HGV). While those big shipping trucks certainly use more fuel, they damage they do to roads far exceeds the tax they pay in fuel*.
So again, I’m fine paying my fair share of road taxes, but the current and proposed additonal EV road taxes are disproportionally high compared to both gasoline vehicles and giant 18-wheeler trucks.
Repeal the gas tax and tax the weight of the vehicle is a sane option. I am sure that isn’t what the oil-backed GOP wants, though.
I’d be fine with that.
However, my original reply stands. The GOP, in the face of high oil costs, are making EV adoption even harder.
Their sitting congresspeople. They don’t have to win an election to affect change. They can simply use their vote to go against the immoral legislation put before them. Instead, they’re just heading for the exits and months or years of voting for the horrible stuff.