As the West surges toward EVs, here’s where the unwanted gas guzzlers go | Hacker News Reader

As the West surges toward EVs, here’s where the unwanted gas guzzlers go

cnn.com

8 pointsclouddrover18 comments

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The next question is: how to pay for roads when the fuel tax is no longer significant?

Simple. EV charger tax.

What if I charge at home?

They'll likely spread it out over all houses in the state.

Little black box talking to the government, how much you charge so you can pay your share.

Tire tax.

And bigger vehicles have more tires and wear them down faster.

It’s not a good idea to discourage keeping tires in good shape though.

How? Won't raising the price of tires incentivize utilizing them longer and taking better care of their longevity?

> incentivize utilizing them longer

This is the problem. More people will use them when they are in an unsafe state (low tread depth/bald/cords showing)

It's fairly easy to set a legal limit on tread depth, issue tread depth measurement tools to police, and seize any car caught on the road with tyres not meeting regulations.

True, although effectiveness may vary wildly depending on the local implementation.

Exhibit A: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_inspection_in_the_Unit...

Doesn't work if you want to keep the tax revenue in the state whose roads you used. Gas tax mostly does this (albeit imperfectly).

The biggest case of that would be over the road trucking, which is mostly on federal highways anyway.

Most other people rarely leave their home state unless they live near a border.

A vehicle tax that's a function of purchase price, age, height and weight of the car.

three out of four of those things aren't related to road wear and tear though?

how about annual miles * k * (weight/axles)^4? adjust k until the roads are paid for.

My opinion is a odometer reading tax or 100% toll roads would be the fairest replacement for fuel taxes.

The reality is certain states have already added flat rate registration fee surcharges for EVs, plug-in hybrids, and even regular hybrids. Like $200. These are often punitively high such that the "replaced" fuel tax is equivalent to a gas guzzler driving 20,000 miles per year.

Many states and countries already have annual car inspections.

Reading the odometer at those and levying a tax of a few cents a mile replaces fuel taxes pretty effectively.

West Africa

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