Featured Virginia goes to psuedo-Miles Driven Gaso Tax

If I owned a hybrid I'd be kinda miffed that they set the bar so low for a "Fuel Efficient Vehicle" tax.
My GMC has a combined MPG rating of 27......

 

at least it’s not a large tax...

What’s even better is my 20mpg rated vehicle gets around 8mpg in the winter.

I can foresee a lawsuit since a lot of people don’t get anywhere near EPA ratings in their use case and it could be argued if you drive a lot of stop and go city miles in a standard car that you are being penalized for a feigned difference for using a resource you never touch.
(Aka this is a highway fund but city driving funds it the most at the lowest mpg)

 

Sue the EPA?
Naaah. They have "science and data" on their side, right?

My EPA numbers are 26/30/27 which means that in the EPA's lab....ONE EXAMPLE of my car could theoretically get something close to those numbers.

My real-world tank average at interstate speeds is about 32.
I hypermiled on a US Highway once and got 40.
I also had one tank average dip below 25 after a very long terminal velocity test during a road trip.
My average between oil changes is about 31.
......in other words.....Actual Mileage WILL vary.

HOWEVER (comma!) remember that the EPA is part of dot.gov.

I doubt they've even TESTED my car.

EVEN IF the federal government was an efficiently run organization.....and EVEN IF many federal employees were not working from home these days.....and EVEN IF they made a herculean effort to actually and honestly test cars.........how much faith would you place in the data?

Here's the 2020 EPA Fuel Economy Guide.
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/pdfs/guides/FEG2020.pdf

If they just wanted to test every car ONE TIME, how long do you think it would take?

 

What about if your vehicle gets 10mpg - does the state issue a refund for overpayment?

 

Then you have this

Study finds EVs are traveling less than half the US fleet average - Green Car Congress

which basically unequivocally states that EVs drive so few miles they don’t need any special taxes

a typical Wisconsin BEV is around 3500 miles a year but pays for about 25,000 miles of tax

Nah, sue the state for using a moving target to justify a frivolous tax that motivates owning a “non-efficient “ vehicle

 

Delete

 

Manufacturers test using EPA rules and certify to the EPA who conducts random verification of some vehicles. We know this from reports of fraud or error.

 

If the fee doesn't factor in actual miles, the "de facto Miles Driven fuel tax" is misleading. It's just an efficiency tax; the opposite of the federal fuel guzzler tax.

Fuel tax revenue has been dropping for years with the improvement of the fleet economy. Being technology neutral is good, but this will encourage the wrong behavior. It's like taxing healthy people for having better lungs than smokers.

 

tax nonsense

 

I disagree with the implementation of this tax because it (roughly) assumes that every EV (for example) drives the same distance. It is not a big tax, but it sets a precedence.

A Hummer EV will pay the same as one of the 3-wheel EVs (or are they considered motorcycles?)

Mike

 

But better lungs consume more air. And air is a shared resource.

 

A 25 MPG bar snags a large majority of current single-family passenger vehicles:



I also think the bar should be set higher, to something resembling current model averages, along with a boosted fuel tax.

 

it might just be time to add PV solar & go EV .... the worst they can do then - is jack up your yearly registration fees. Maybe it's a convoluted form of green laws ... get rid of that nasty fossil fuel burning hybrid, & drive electric?

.

 

My bad, I should have looked for an EPA chart, not absent-mindedly posted a CAFE chart.

They are related and linked, though with an ever-diverging scale factor as the EPA repeatedly adjusts its scale.