… until people start taking down the drones and stealing them and the stuff they were delivering.
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This is a nonsensical statement. Ignoring, for a moment, the switch from gas to electric, if all gas cars over time double their mpg, then the gas tax would need to double to keep up the same rate of funding…but politicians don’t want to be seen increasing taxes so they throw up their hands and give up?
Meanwhile some want to blame EVs for not paying gas taxes. It is actually, so far, a very small amount. And they impose a EV registration tax in some states that far exceeds what the gas tax would have been collect for a similar gas car.
Mike
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Its easy to tax EVs when not many voters own one. Gas tax is far more difficult.
I’m not sure what you mean by this. As far as I am aware, there’s a Federal gas tax, and each state, or nearly all states, have their own separate gas tax.
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Raising EV tax is relatively painless for politicians. Raising gas tax is far more difficult. The trucking lobby will come after you.
We have just been through this in Missouri. Raising gas tax took years in the state legislature despite clear need for more funds.
Except raising EV tax doesn’t bring much in for them to spend (because there so few EVs out there), so why bother in the first place?
Missouri has just under 25,000 EVs registered, so if they add an EV tax of $200 (that number seems popular in other states that have additional EV taxes) on each of them, they will raise less than $5 million of additional taxes.
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Or the birds get angry.
On NYC beaches, angry birds fight drones patrolling for sharks and struggling swimmers
Since the drones began flying in May, flocks of birds have repeatedly swarmed the devices, forcing the police department and other city agencies to adjust their flight plans. While the attacks have slowed, they have not stopped completely, fueling concern from wildlife experts about the impact on threatened species nesting along the coast.
DB2
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A friend of mine, a glider pilot, told me that when he spiraled in the opposite direction of the birds they got very upset and angry. Breaking protocol?
The Captain
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But doing some quick math, that is in the ballpark of the gas taxes that would have been collected on gas cars. So it seems like a reasonable level of taxation on EVs.
–Peter
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Birds Aren’t Real
https://www.audubon.org/news/are-birds-actually-government-issued-drones-so-says-new-conspiracy-theory-making
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But doing some additional math says that someone driving a high mpg car (i.e. ~50 mpg) and only goes 10K miles per year currently pays as low as $20/yr in state taxes (Alaska), $100 in the average state and $140 in the highest taxed state (CA) multiply by 1.5 to get the number for 15K miles. So people on a tight budget and/or trying to drive less and use less gas pay up to 10x the rate and ~1.33x the average.
I’m going to guess that the low gas tax states tend to have the highest EV registration tax
Mike
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Of course. Individual experiences are going to vary significantly from the averages. But public policy - the tax rate on EVs in this case - needs to be set based on averages. Some individuals will be better off, some worse, but the average person will be roughly the same with either case.
And we can also take a look at your actual figures - $20 a year in the low tax states (it is hard to have low annual mileage in AK, but we won’t sweat that) vs $200 a year flat tax. That’s only a $180 difference. If you can afford to buy a new car, a $180 annual difference is not that big a deal. $15 a month - when your car payment is probably over $500 a month. Plus, you’re not paying for any gas at all, so you’re still better off.
Maybe they get snowed in for a few months of the year?
Would you believe the average is under 10K?
Top 5 States (Highest Average Mileage):
- Wyoming: Approximately 24,069 miles
- Mississippi: Approximately 21,972 miles
- Montana: Approximately 21,857 miles
- Alabama: Approximately 21,786 miles
- South Carolina: Approximately 21,380 miles
Bottom 5 States (Lowest Average Mileage):
- Washington D.C.: Approximately 4,623 miles
- Alaska: Approximately 9,915 miles
- Hawaii: Approximately 10,078 miles
- Rhode Island: Approximately 10,346 miles
- New York: Approximately 11,871 miles
source: MS copilot (so maybe it is right)
Mike
1 Like