Beware EV car owners in Illinois
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interestedinEV
Well-Known Member
Here is the dilemma that states and local government face. A lot of the road and infrastructure improvement and even maintenance is based on gas tax. Sometimes even the police and emergency services depend on gas tax. EVs use the same roads, cause wear and tear, may need the emergency services etc. But they do not pay the gas tax, and hence the burden falls on the ICE user to make up for it. If BEVs are a very small fraction of the total on road vehicle population, it may not be significant, but if they say go to 5 or 10%, then it starts affecting revenue. So I see the problem and this reaction (to add large registration taxes on EVs) has happened in Alabama and will happen/has happened in many other states.
However, $1000 seems arbitrary. In Illinois, the gas taxes are about 26.35 cents per gallon (cpg). If you increase to 44 -c-, plus say about 7-c- for local taxes for a total of 51-c. So you have to buy about 2000 gallons in a year to generate $1000 in gas taxes. At even 20 mpg, this is about 40,000 miles driven in a year, which is not the norm. So it is not equitable. If the fee was much less (about say $300 to 450), then one could make an argument that EV owners need to pay for their share of usage. Now, it sounds like the government wants to sock the person who can afford a EV or cares about the environment. Now they want EV owners to subsidize ICEs, instead of creating a disincentive to use ICEs.
Also, the EV user uses Electricity and pays some taxes on that. So in all fairness, they need to consider that in their calculations.
However, $1000 seems arbitrary. In Illinois, the gas taxes are about 26.35 cents per gallon (cpg). If you increase to 44 -c-, plus say about 7-c- for local taxes for a total of 51-c. So you have to buy about 2000 gallons in a year to generate $1000 in gas taxes. At even 20 mpg, this is about 40,000 miles driven in a year, which is not the norm. So it is not equitable. If the fee was much less (about say $300 to 450), then one could make an argument that EV owners need to pay for their share of usage. Now, it sounds like the government wants to sock the person who can afford a EV or cares about the environment. Now they want EV owners to subsidize ICEs, instead of creating a disincentive to use ICEs.
Also, the EV user uses Electricity and pays some taxes on that. So in all fairness, they need to consider that in their calculations.
Pushmi-Pullyu
Well-Known Member
If they waited until PEVs (Plug-in EVs) made up at least 5% of the cars on the road, then a tax just for PEVs might be justifiable. But doing it when PEVs are probably less than 1% of all cars on the road looks very much like a punitive tax, and the result of
A fee of $1000 per year is grossly inflated and obviously punitive. My back-of-the-envelope calculations showed the average American driver would spend approximately $200 per year on Federal and State gasoline taxes, combined.
interestedinEV
Well-Known Member
They were going to double the taxes, so in Illinois it might go up about $300 in state taxes alone, not including federal.
interestedinEV
Well-Known Member
How will you measure mileage? People can claim that they drove the car out of state. While that is the fair way to do it, you need some sort of tracking mechanism (like used toll roads or places like Singapore), which could become very intrusive.
Pushmi-Pullyu
Well-Known Member
For States which require an annual vehicle inspection, an odometer reading can be added to the inspection. Of course, the State would then have to track odometer readings, so they could subtract the previous year's odometer reading to get the miles.
It would add a bit to the bureaucratic red tape, but perhaps it's not an undue burden to impose on motorists.
And others who have their car registered in another State will travel some miles on the State's road. I don't see that being a significant problem. People buy gas out-of-state, and pay sales tax on out-of-state purchases, too. Trying to keep track of all that would be far more trouble than it's worth, and anyway to some extent it should mostly even out, especially if other States enact similar taxes.
If the tax was only about $200 per year, then I would say that altho it's a bad idea to impose it when EVs are still so rare, it's not that big of a deal.
But $1000 per year is a big deal. It's outrageous!
that's why i said at registration. license plates need renewing yearly in most places. you'd have someone check your mileage since last registration and apply a fee according to mileage.
by the time it gets fully implemented most cars will probably come with apps for your phone that will show the make/model/mileage/serial number for the registry office.
interestedinEV
Well-Known Member
Bad enough google tries to track me, do I really want the government also tracking me? We are going to have some serious privacy concerns.
interestedinEV
Well-Known Member
As people in this forum know me, I am not a conspiracy theorist but I do believe in privacy. Any such move cannot only be for EVs and as some ICE owner may claim that they drive very little and should have lower taxes etc. So it will be more extensive.
Once the government collects this data, it is on public record. They cannot destroy this information right away, in case there are appeals etc. So this data is obtainable though search warrants or even without one. Now you might say. "It is the total mileage in a year, what information does that have?". Using that information, insurance companies might it use to raise rates, prosecutors may claim you are using it for nefarious purposes etc. Now may be we can have some checks and balances there, but I would rather have the government and companies like google know less about me than more.
ice owners here couldn't complain that way, since the tax is built into the gas. if they drive less, they pay less.
so i don't quite understand your point.
registration for plates would be the same base, but for an ev it would be an extra charge to make up for the gas taxes.
and mileage based would be the only fair way.
the problem only comes with PHEV, where you can't tell if the mileage is electric or fossil.
but manufacturers could create a way for them to differentiate the mileage.
and yes, i'm very much about putting as little about myself out there too.
but the only data the license people would have extra for evs would be mileage over an ice user.
so it really doesn't change anything.
the mileage would be recorded once a year or two (we can buy 1 or 2 year reg here.) and used to calculate your portion of road tax at license plate renewal time.
so i don't quite understand your point.
registration for plates would be the same base, but for an ev it would be an extra charge to make up for the gas taxes.
and mileage based would be the only fair way.
the problem only comes with PHEV, where you can't tell if the mileage is electric or fossil.
but manufacturers could create a way for them to differentiate the mileage.
and yes, i'm very much about putting as little about myself out there too.
but the only data the license people would have extra for evs would be mileage over an ice user.
so it really doesn't change anything.
the mileage would be recorded once a year or two (we can buy 1 or 2 year reg here.) and used to calculate your portion of road tax at license plate renewal time.