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Comment by froindt | Hacker News Reader

While it's a far cry from 1,400x more in fuel tax, semis do get "punished" for their poor fuel mileage (paying more tax per mile driven) compared to a person in a Prius. In Iowa, the tax is 30.8 cents/gallon for gasoline and 32.5 cents/gallon for diesel. [1] At 53 mpg and 6 mpg, the tax cost per miles is 0.616 cents and 5.42 cents respectively. And of course electric vehicles avoid this tax entirely.

Applying the tax on a per-gallon basis is great for environmentalism, as it encourages higher fuel efficiency. Applying it by vehicle classification and cost/mile could eliminate the subsidization, but would be a huge pain to keep track of.

[1] https://tax.iowa.gov/iowa-fuel-tax-rate-changes-effective-ju...

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> And of course electric vehicles avoid this tax entirely.

That's hardly true, most states have enacted an EV tax on registration that covers the same wear and tear from the gas tax.

When I last ran the numbers I paid more for the EV tax(which I'm happy to do in order to pay my fair share) then I did in gas.

100% of that goes to the state you purchase/register in, correct? There is currently no federal EV tax that would offset federal fuel taxes that help fund interstate highways, correct?

The assertion was the EV skip the tax completely. That said the majority of the gas tax goes to the state level(at least here in WA state).

There's also a simple solution to the federal tax, add it to registration just the same way the state tax works.

There is an even easier solution, toll all federal highways and replace the fuel tax with that.

however for many people they start with a 7500 dollar offset just from the Federal government. throw in state rebates and the revenue lost to EVs gets really exaggerated.

my state, Georgia, is damn obnoxious with a two hundred dollar fee per year to declare as an EV; my car which is a Volt can declare either way; which when I ran the numbers put me beyond my normal driving on gasoline alone. Meaning I decided to not list as an EV because it punishing, not rewarding.

You should be required to list as an EV, so that you pay the share of road maintenance of which you're currently cheating the taxpayers of Georgia.

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