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Taxing the Weight of EV Batteries Would Be a Real Green Solution

news.bloombergtax.com

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Re: Taxing the Weight of EV Batteries Would Be a Real Green Solution

#31

Post by kj4ips »

ErikVandeWater wrote: post #28

If no one ever electrified a car, I feel the world would be better off so people wouldn't be mislead thinking electric cars are a green solution to transit. Trains, busses, and bikes are the green solution.

It's all relative, EVs have the potential to be greener than their alternative, but actual public transit and non-powered transport are always going to be better where they are available.

It's all too easy to disregard "good" solutions because they are not "perfect".

Even when I lived in range of the local public transport, it's 1/hour frequency, limitations on baggage, and limited hours meant that I pretty much only used it as an alternative to walking back, since it was marginally faster, and climate controlled. It's miles better than nothing, but it still pales in comparison to access gained from the use of a personal vehicle.

Re: Taxing the Weight of EV Batteries Would Be a Real Green Solution

#32

Post by ZeroGravitas »

This is exactly 180 degrees wrong.

It suggests that taxing the vehicle weight would lead to less safety.

In fact, previous CARB pollution controls have paid for themselves, just in the reduction in death as a result of lightweighting changes made to achieve the mpg goals.

Tax the vehicle weight. It's an externality.

If you care about some aspect of mining, tax or regulate that directly.

Re: Taxing the Weight of EV Batteries Would Be a Real Green Solution

#33

Post by Daishiman »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #20
Daishiman wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To counteract these needless cynical takes - someone has to maintain roads and roads are funded by taxes on gas and municipalities, which means vehicles that pay no taxes from gas of from the local municipalities are freeloading. Moreover roads wear out to the fourth power of the vehicle's mass, which means if anything that light vehicles subsidize those heavier ones regardless of emissions.

Infrastructure spending is really not that big of an expense regardless of who's doing it. Many/most roads are economically worthwhile (or are a low enough cost to be a justifiable luxury) on their own albeit some (mostly in rural areas) at lower standards of maintenance.

This not true - in the US most municipalities are financially underwater with regards to infrastructure maintenance costs, especially with road infrastructure.

Re: Taxing the Weight of EV Batteries Would Be a Real Green Solution

#34

Post by CraigRo »

GaryNumanVevo wrote: post #24
xt00 wrote: post #8

Probably the only useful thing in the article is highlighting that some EVs are so heavy that their stopping distance from 70mph can be a much larger distance than people would expect at over 200ft. It might be safer for the driver of that heavy vehicle but a 9000 lb truck rear ending you is going to be pretty rough.

Not to mention if EVs (especially SUV model EVs) become the norm, roads are going to get a LOT worse due to the inflated curb weight. It's already bad here in the south along many busy semi truck routes, but imagine all the small suburban roads having to be resurfaced sooner and sooner.

Road damage is the fourth power of axle weight. So these things are nothing compared to a semi.

Re: Taxing the Weight of EV Batteries Would Be a Real Green Solution

#35

Post by cultofmetatron »

kj4ips wrote: post #29
cultofmetatron wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree but its just not practical in a lot of places due to idiotic urban planning. Euclidean zoning and urban sprawl have become the cancer of america. In many places, there are no places close by to just hangout. just my parent's place one has to drive (no sidewalks) 3 miles to get milk at he gas station and thats pretty good by american standards. Until we fix that, (more mixed use zoning, higher density, consist…

I agree heartily. In order to gain access to "good", reliable internet, I had to move to the former "new-money" part of town, which is now pseudo-affordable. There is extremely limited non-vehicular options. The road out of the subdivision has zero shoulder, a one-way bike lane, and no sidewalks. Local residents don't respect the pedestrian easement, and ignore the posted speed limit across low visibility hills. The…

god.. the idea that there are people so vehemently oppossed to "walkability." like what exactly are they fighting for?

Re: Taxing the Weight of EV Batteries Would Be a Real Green Solution

#36

Post by floxy »

comte7092 wrote: post #23
bwindels wrote: post #7

Isn't (battery) weight a proxy for what we really care about, energy consumption per covered distance? Seems like if you'd tax the latter, manufacturers would have more options to innovate around efficiency rather than just battery weight and provide lower-taxed vehicles. Battery weight will of course still be important to get consumption down, but perhaps there are other ways as well to make cars more efficient. One…

In the US at least, the gas tax (in concept, not really in reality) what we care about is wear on roads. Therefore a tax on gasoline was actually just a proxy for what we cared about, which was wear on roads. Taxing battery weight is a better method in this instance, because wear is directly proportional to vehicle weight.

>wear is directly proportional to vehicle weight.

Road wear is proportional to the fourth power of axle weight:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law

Re: Taxing the Weight of EV Batteries Would Be a Real Green Solution

#37

Post by silverwasthere »

ErikVandeWater wrote: post #28

If no one ever electrified a car, I feel the world would be better off so people wouldn't be mislead thinking electric cars are a green solution to transit. Trains, busses, and bikes are the green solution.

I biked and bussed to work for years via a transit center which was lovely, but my new job is local and a bike was just plain unsafe. I almost was hit by an oblivious car or malicious truck (seriously I was a bicycle doing 10 over the speed limit, theres no need to blow a diesel cloud at me just so they know they are faster...) every single day.

Without separate bike lanes like I had doing a more normal commute to the city, hecken nope! I love my EV.

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