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You can try to rationalise these taxes with externalities but that would assume electric cars have no externalities.No, it does not. But they definitely don't have any of the same externalities when it comes to AGW, which is the biggest environmental threat we're facing. And it's not clear they have any significant unique ones vs ICE cars. You'll need to quantify the environmental impact of manufacturing batteries vs crude oil extraction, transport (including oil spills), and refining for example. Internalizing carbon emissions in gasoline/diesel only covers a hard eyed AGW focus. Things like tire wear causing particulate pollution apply to both too. And EVs use far less consumable fluids and have fewer parts.
>And you can redefine a market all you want. The original poster almost certainly meant it as "winning on its own merit".
No, it is you who are attempting to redefine what a "market" is. A product "winning on its own merit" can only be said to be true if all externalities (or at least all significant ones) are accounted for. If the price doesn't include those, the product is not competing on its own merits either. This is econ 101. ICE cars have literally not competed solely on their own merits even once in their entire history. We are seeing at best a very, very slow and halting ultra late correction when the market is already shifting for other reasons because BEVs are just that much better even with ICE cars massively subsidized.