More taxes on 'lectric vehicles

Yes, effective Jan 1, 2013 EV drivers will be charged a $100 tax when they renew their registration. The tax apparently only applies to pure electric cars not PHEV like the Prius or Volt nore to NEVs.

 

whew!

 

If they keep it at $100, I think that's fair. Like most Govt programs that fee will escalate out of proportion

 

I can see it now. Please be green and here is your $100.00 extra charge for buying a pure
electric vehicle. So, now that you have your electric car, your friendly state government can tax
you as much and in any manner they want.

Sorry for the rant, but I now have less faith in our government than in any time of my
62 years on earth.

 

lol sounds back to front to me.

Here you pay £500 per year for a V8 Range Rover and £0 for a Prius or Leaf. (with a sliding scale inbetween).

 

Since we pay an electricity tax instead of a gasoline tax, we have to pay a "Your car is different" tax?

 

Do you have some objection to EV owners paying a share of highway costs?

 

I believe that EV owners take a chance and are the first ones to jump in the water.
They should be exempt at least for a few years from any road tax.

I am sure those who have the money to buy an EV vehicle already pay their share of taxes.....

 

But isn't a flat rate 'tax' communist? Surely any tax for use of the roads should reflect the damage caused to it? Thus a big heavy gas guzzler should pay more and the tiny electric car should pay less?

If we're going to be balanced about this, perhaps people should sue the petrochemical industries for asthma and breathing issues caused by the smog use of their product causes? Only right and fair isn't it?

 

EVs are heavier than comparable engine driven cares, so by your logic they should pay more road tax.

 

Fine BUT there are LOTS more vehicles that are HEAVIER. So once they start paying MORE I'm sure the average EVer won't mind paying something.

And all this is assuming all gasoline tax goes on road repair and upkeep.

 

Leave it to Government to ruin the good in everything. The EV car registrations are so small that the taxes raised will be worthless. Perhaps gov should reward the EV ownerrs for not polluting and taking early technology risks to promote the technology that will reverse global warming. If they want to raise money stop giving Corporate Welfare to Big Oil companies and give the $ back to tax payers who are hung out to dry.

 

As long as you are assuming that gasoline tax goes to road repair and upkeep, heavier vehicles tend to burn more fuel so they already pay more taxes.

 

Mixed feelings on this.
It takes away one more silly argument from the anti-EV crowd.
However, if they really want to make sure vehicles are paying for their share of the damage to the road, the tax should be based on:
Miles driven &
Weight &
Damage due to fuel and cargo.

So a F350 that is driven 15 miles a year would pay very little. A F350 that hauls a bunch of stuff and drives all over the place would pay a ton.
A hybrid that is driven 20,000 miles a year would pay the same as any other car, hybrid or not, that weighed the same and drove the same number of miles.
A pure EV would pay less because it would not be damaging the roads with as many toxins (leaking oils, gas, exhaust). However, it is likely heavier so it will end up paying a little more.

 

Nobody is mentioning this side much in the arguments for or against.

An EV can be driven on clean electricity and thus doesn't damage the population with poisonous fumes. Perhaps they should get a rebate? Be paid to drive even? Or, perhaps a gasoline tax should become a pollution tax? Should we sue the oil companies or individual fossil fuel car users for their poison? Which is worse? A cigarette or a 10 minute walk in the smog? One rule for all right?

 

That tax is essentially already being paid, because fuel consumption is largely proportional to vehicle weight and miles driven. Yes, there are some light cars with poor mileage than heavier cars, but the real road and bridge destroyers are the trucks.

 

1,600 EV vehicles x $100 per car registration fee = $160,000
Hardly enough to make any significant change in road maintenance.
However this will do collateral damage in the minds of potential drivers as they associate EV vehicles with higher taxes.
Our gov has no common sense. We pay federal, state, local, school, sales tax, car registration tax. But we give away Billions to foreign governments many who hate us and foreign companies who compete with our local companies. We are so big and compex and make such silly taxes that the money never gets to the purpose it was designed for.

 

Why would you base the tax on a "damage" or "wear and tear" factor rather than on beneficial use?

 

California just raised sales tax and income tax on everyone. We are perhaps the most overtaxed state in the Union with a few exceptions back East. Now we can expect our federal Taxes to be raised as the Fiscal Cliff shows that we cannot continue to pay out with little revenue coming in and Congress is just inept. Gov just keeps taxing and taxing and taxing and we just keep paying and paying and paying.