Technology

they want you trapped in the fossil fuel death spiral

I pay over $250/year for that privilege in Washington state. The goal is to make up for the gasoline tax I don't pay - which is fair in principle, because gas tax is used to maintain the roads we all drive on. What's not fair is that it's a flat amount. I drive less than 6000 miles/year. The electric car flat fee is approximately the gas tax a Prius driver would pay to drive twice that far. So to drive an all-electric car I'm being taxed twice as much tax as if I drove a hybrid. Insane.

Probably an unpopular opinion but this is to offset a federal fuel tax they aren’t getting since it’s an EV. It could be calculated better based on miles but that opens up a privacy issue.

My solution is due away with all fuel taxes and tax tires. They have a know wear rate based on miles, and don’t have any privacy issues like location tracking.

I don't mind a road tax. I prefer it over tolls. We already pay gas taxes for infrastructure. My issue is that it is a set price. I honestly think it should be based on the price and weight of your vehicle, and your annual mileage. A subcompact for your daily 20 minute commute is less damaging to the road than a truck traveling 70k miles per year is.

My other problem, no guarantees that it will be used for infrastructure.

Interesting points to me are the fact that this 130 fee is:

• more than what the average fuel consuming car pay (70-90)
• Is on top of what many people already pay in state taxes to drive their car

What about all the subsidies we pay on gas? Maybe get rid of those if you want some revenue?

This is climate change denial in action. Any normal country would incentivize people to switch to EVs, not the opposite.

It's never an option to tax the megacorporations that force us to use public roads that they don't pay for to get to work is it?

Good ol corporate socialism. Privatize the gains and socialize the losses.

Tax the megacorps more and use that to maintain roads and expand public transit providing an actual choice for people rather than forcing the individual to buy a car, pay for maintenance, for registration, for fuel, for a license, for tolls, all just to get to work.

Arkansas already charges an extra $200 annual registration fee for electric vehicles.

Sam Graves, Federal Congress Republican of Missouri, Wants You To Pay $130 A Year Just To Drive An Electric Car

FTFY

When they tried this last year it was scrapped because there was no practical way to collect it. Are we going to have a national car registry? That would take more money than it would collect. If they just ask a question on tax filing, I'm just going to lie.

But is $130 actually fair?

Well, a flat fee doesn't take into account vehicle weight or annual mileage, which the gas tax more-or-less does. And the road maintenance cost is a function of those two things. A flat fee would penalize drivers of infrequently-driven small vehicles.

But...I suppose that gathering that data would also add some privacy concerns and costs, like the government needing to record how many miles your vehicle has traveled in a year.

EDIT: The really obnoxious thing is that everyone else is grabbing movement data on vehicles to make money off. Automakers via integrated cell radios. ALPR network operators. I assume that charging station operators do too

fast DC connections like NACS transmit the vehicle's VIN, and I'd be very surprised if charging companies aren't monetizing that data.

"Won't you pay a little extra to save the planet? No? What a scumbag you are."

Proceeds to dump toxic waste into a river to save $1200

I don't know the correct answer to this exactly, but given that I've only driven my car (hybrid) about 4k miles total over the last 2 years since I got it (April '24), and paid less (but not $0) in gas tax, but still got hit with the full $130 extra fee is absolutely infuriating. I hadn't even owned it a full year yet but still had to pay a non pro-rated amount (my previous car was a regular gas car).

I'm basically paying almost 6x the rate per mile since I drive so little. I'm the one stuck paying extra because I can't afford to drive enough to justify the full amount, and subsidizing some high mileage driver out there.

I realize tracking mileage has privacy implications, so I don't know a perfect solution, but it fucking SUCKS to get ripped off this hard. While being on disability due to injury and other surgeries, too. I mean I'm still building strength and endurance back to be capable of working again, preferably this year, but I'm the meantime, taxes are fucking killing me.

At least with an EV I would have 0 in gas taxes instead of paying the "not paying gas tax" fee on top of the gas tax- while gas is almost $5 a gallon.

So much bullshit.

Edit- I just noticed that my state does offer a mileage based option, but you have to plug a doodad plugged in the ol Ob2 port or whatever it's called. And then use an app to upload your mileage information, which I believe happens more than once a year, which is weird and more privacy breaking, given that registration is only assessed once a year (or less, if you pay 2 or 3 years ahead). That gives them not only your total mileage for the year, but which month you got those miles in.

I assume per month, but I don't actually know. I assume it's once per year, because they added that in addition to using that device and the app, that you have to annually send a photo of your odometer to what they actually called "true up" your info.

If they're relying on that photo to be the most reliable part, then that should be the only part needed. It's basically screaming in our face that the device and app is definitely just for "spying purposes that we actually make money on".

Personally I don't want to even give them the photo, especially since it's about a $150 fee a year. So given that I drive less than a quarter of whatever is normal now (I've heard "normal" is 10-15k miles per year, but I've only heard it from my parents, so I don't actually know- and again I've gotten about 5k over 2 years), I see this as being assessed it to be a little under $40 for the actual fee, and a little over $100 for the "keep your nose out of my business" fee.

Give us cross country high speed rail and you got a deal.

Fuck Congress