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US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

electrek.co

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Re: US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

#81

Post by bdangubic »

dlcarrier wrote: post #58
legitster wrote: post #22

I want to set aside the author's disdain and polemics for a second: - The federal gas tax is low and unchanged. States have their own gas taxes in addition that do go up and have done so a lot in the last several decades. - The current compromise is to collect it once at a federal level and split the proceeds with the states. This has problems, but it's better than having every state track individual mileage on publi…

- Gas tax goes towards more than just fixing road damage Earmarking never sticks around; someone always finds a loophole to spend funds on anything unrelated.

unfortunately 100% true. the “road” projects take roughly 7865x the time they take in any other country so roughly 98.56% of that collected money is skimmed

Re: US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

#82

Post by jmye »

legitster wrote: post #22

I want to set aside the author's disdain and polemics for a second: - The federal gas tax is low and unchanged. States have their own gas taxes in addition that do go up and have done so a lot in the last several decades. - The current compromise is to collect it once at a federal level and split the proceeds with the states. This has problems, but it's better than having every state track individual mileage on publi…

> The federal gas tax is low and unchanged. States have their own gas taxes in addition that do go up and have done so a lot in the last several decades.

Why is this relevant? Aside from your “polemics”, I mean.

> Obviously EVs currently account for a small fraction of road use right now, but they mostly drive on dense, urban infrastructure - the most expensive to build and maintain.

I suppose if it’s a small fraction of that then this all makes perfect sense. What is the specific fraction they should be funding then, and why is the federal government the right group to collect it? Or are we just making excuses for politics we like?

> As EVs inevitably grow in popularity, this will have to be solved eventually anyway.

So now is a good time? Why?

Re: US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

#84

Post by Sweepi »

legitster wrote: post #22

I want to set aside the author's disdain and polemics for a second: - The federal gas tax is low and unchanged. States have their own gas taxes in addition that do go up and have done so a lot in the last several decades. - The current compromise is to collect it once at a federal level and split the proceeds with the states. This has problems, but it's better than having every state track individual mileage on publi…

"Obviously EVs currently account for a small fraction of road use right now, but they mostly drive on dense, urban infrastructure - the most expensive to build and maintain."

Is it the most expensive by $/length of road, or by $/(vehicle * travel distance)?

Re: US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

#85

Post by stavros »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #54
stavros wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are EVs that widespread in the US already that you're at the stage where you need to move from incentivising EV purchases to normalising their taxation?

Yes, and they have been for a few years now. I don’t know of a state that doesn’t charge higher tab fees for EVs in 2026. Maybe Alaska?

> Are EVs that widespread in the US already

> Yes, and they have been for a few years now.

Apparently they're 1.9% of all vehicles currently on the road, do you consider that to be "that widespread"? I was aiming for 51%.

> I don’t know of a state that doesn’t charge higher tab fees for EVs in 2026

That doesn't mean EVs are widespread, it just means states want to favor ICEs more than EVs.

Re: US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

#86

Post by angoragoats »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #54
stavros wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are EVs that widespread in the US already that you're at the stage where you need to move from incentivising EV purchases to normalising their taxation?

Yes, and they have been for a few years now. I don’t know of a state that doesn’t charge higher tab fees for EVs in 2026. Maybe Alaska?

I own an EV in Massachusetts and I’m not aware of any extra EV fees of any sort here. The only EV-specific thing the DMV even offers is an EV-only license plate, and the bi-annual registration fee for that plate is the same as a standard passenger vehicle plate ($60).

There’s a map here: https://www.ncsl.org/transportation/special-registration-fee...

Looks like most of the northeast, plus AK, FL, AZ, NM, and NV are in the same boat.

Re: US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

#87

Post by cozzyd »

cyberax wrote: post #80
cozzyd wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm pretty sure this train I'm on right now is taking me home from work. Transit is such a failure that I haven't owned a car in 15 years...

Let me guess: single, no children? Or a full-time stay-at-home spouse if more than 2 children? Alternatively, not the US.

Married with a 4-year-old, in the US (Chicago ). About to bring her to school on the bus in a bit.

Re: US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

#88

Post by Steltek »

Sweepi wrote: post #84
legitster wrote: post #22

I want to set aside the author's disdain and polemics for a second: - The federal gas tax is low and unchanged. States have their own gas taxes in addition that do go up and have done so a lot in the last several decades. - The current compromise is to collect it once at a federal level and split the proceeds with the states. This has problems, but it's better than having every state track individual mileage on publi…

"Obviously EVs currently account for a small fraction of road use right now, but they mostly drive on dense, urban infrastructure - the most expensive to build and maintain." Is it the most expensive by $/length of road, or by $/(vehicle * travel distance)?

Irrelevant to the fact that city roads are not Federal roads! State and municipal taxes are already doing the job here.

Re: US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

#89

Post by Steltek »

stavros wrote: post #20
jaredwiener wrote: post #13

Zeroing out the gas tax aside, the EV tax makes _some_ sense. Gas taxes provide the revenue that help pay for road maintenance and the rest of the infrastructure that cars use. Gas taxes made sense -- the more you drive, the more you chip in to keep the road system going. That infrastructure still needs to exist, and will still cost money to maintain -- but if fewer people are buying gas, then the funds will dry up,…

Are EVs that widespread in the US already that you're at the stage where you need to move from incentivising EV purchases to normalising their taxation?

Absolutely not. I'm in a deep blue state, in a dense urban area well served by charging infra. EV registration is like 10% here.

Re: US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

#90

Post by neogodless »

Average car gets 24.4 mpg, while federal gas tax is currently $0.183 / gallon.

US drivers average 13,476 miles (across gender / age groups).

So currently gas tax is ~$101.07 (for "cars", more for light trucks.)

As someone who drives 5000-6000 miles a year in an EV, I don't love $130 flat rate, but it's not far enough from the average gas tax to be wildly upsetting to me.

In my state, though, I'm already paying $250 / year, or about $0.04/mile. Gas tax here is $0.576/gallon which comes out to ~$318.12 annually, or $0.024 / mile for an "average" gas driver (using figures above). If I drove a more average amount, it would be inline.

As others have discussed, the trade-off of a flat fee is not having to devise ways to grant your exact miles driven data to the government, and the taxes are close enough to the gas taxes that I'm not going to be up in arms about it. I save way more than that having virtually no powertrain maintenance. (My state inspection was 15 minutes and $40. Basically they said, yup, it has tires.)

https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10310

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/bar8.htm

https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dmv/vehicle-services/road-user-c...

https://www.pa.gov/agencies/revenue/resources/tax-rates/moto...

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