Featured Excessive registration fees coming to EV and hybrid owners

I'm all for paying my fair share IF IT'S USED FOR WHAT THEIR INTENDED FOR. Problem here in california is the road/gas taxes are put into a slush fund and used to pay for everything from illegal alien abortions to welfare. If the money ACTUALY went to the roads there would be no problem with upkeep and there would be no such thing as a pothole.

I'm a big fan of the idea of WEIGHT-BASED FEES. AKA the more your car or truck or semi weighs, the more you pay. the more you weigh, the more wear and tear your putting on the roads so you should be paying your fair share.

 

I should point out that my state's new hybrid registration surcharge isn't supposed to go to road upkeep at all. It is intended to finance electric car charging stations -- which hybrids can't use.

 

I agree that Federal Highway dollars should be withheld from states that penalize hybrids and plug-ins. Hybrids do not deserve any fees they are gasoline-only vehicles, hybrids get nothing except kicked-in the butt (nobody in USA likes hybnds).

Alt fuels a little trickier as they are escaping gaso tax and so some fee is not morally wrong. But fee should not be unfair, Of course plug-in advocates prefer tax-breaks for plugins, so that is the source of conflict.

 

The weight difference between a Corolla and a Sequoia doesn't make a difference to a road designed for commercial trucks.

 

Quite true, however larger trucks should not be subsidized by those driving efficient cars.
I’m ok with fees based on mileage and weight. Those that use the roads, should pay for them.
As a BEV driver, I should not be paying triple what a driver of an ICE is.

 

If there is a fee for BEVs, it should be approximately the same tax as a 75 - 100 mpg ICE car that travels 10-15K miles per year. OR based on actual miles if they use an odometer reading.
Charging more is a penalty compared to high mpg ICE car (hybrid or not)
Charging less is OK if it is intended to be an incentive but only for a limited time...maybe the first 3 years you have no tax.

Mike

 

Agreed, but if you except weight based fees for personal cars your BEV will be paying more than an ICE one.

There is simple no wear and tear justification for charging a heavier personal car more than a lighter one.

BEVs do have an official MPGe rating from the EPA. No excuse for just charging them the gasoline tax for those 10k to 15k miles.

 

Apologies for not being more clear.
The weight based part of the fees should not be linear. The fees should follow the same ratio as the weight to damage ratio. I believe it is something along the lines of weight to the fourth power?
Similarly, this should not be just for BEVs, this same formula should be used for all vehicles that use the roads.

 

I paid $39.50 for the registration on the Spark EV and $64.50 on the Bolt. Our governor Comrade Murphy is trying to get people into ZEVs, so they're laying off of us for now. They work on making it up in other ways though. A 65 mile round trip on the NJ Turnpike cost me over $18.00.

 

Virginia now blue and converting to Deeper South Jersey as fast as we can. We got as high $50 for short trip on our HOT lanes, and no exceptions except HOV3. Although we can't blame only the Dems for that, before we were Blue, the rural Repubs liked to punish northern Virginia with higher taxes and fees (where the Jersey renegades/outsiders live).

However, the house of cards is falling apart with nobody on the roads after COVID.
And we had quite good HOV3 system participation going.

 

You wanted more beltway. The political powers weren't going to raise taxes for the bonds to pay for it because voters wouldn't approve. How else would you get those roads which do, in normal times, siphon some traffic off of the free lanes.

I use to live in Oakton and commute to Tysons. What was a 7 minute drive at 70 MPH in the '70s became a 45 minute slog in the '00s no matter which of 3 routes I used. Wife got up at 4:15 to make it into DC in a Prius carpool using HOV lanes on 66.

We couldn't wait to move when we retired. 10 minutes at 55 MPH to town. Two people at a light and you begin muttering about the traffic.