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Comment by stavros | Hacker News Reader

Are EVs that widespread in the US already that you're at the stage where you need to move from incentivising EV purchases to normalising their taxation?

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Absolutely not. I'm in a deep blue state, in a dense urban area well served by charging infra. EV registration is like 10% here.

I think future proofing taxation now rather than waiting until enough people have EVs to try to resist it isn't a bad call, and can easily live in parallel with wanting to subsidize broader adoption.

But then if it's that, why isn't it a general road tax per vehicle weight/class, and an extra EV subsidy on top?

Yes, and they have been for a few years now. I don’t know of a state that doesn’t charge higher tab fees for EVs in 2026. Maybe Alaska?

> Are EVs that widespread in the US already

> Yes, and they have been for a few years now.

Apparently they're 1.9% of all vehicles currently on the road, do you consider that to be "that widespread"? I was aiming for 51%.

> I don’t know of a state that doesn’t charge higher tab fees for EVs in 2026

That doesn't mean EVs are widespread, it just means states want to favor ICEs more than EVs.

I’m pretty sure the “every other car is a Tesla” phenomena is localized, but still widespread in the sense that it was 0% not too long ago.

I own an EV in Massachusetts and I’m not aware of any extra EV fees of any sort here. The only EV-specific thing the DMV even offers is an EV-only license plate, and the bi-annual registration fee for that plate is the same as a standard passenger vehicle plate ($60).

There’s a map here: https://www.ncsl.org/transportation/special-registration-fee...

Looks like most of the northeast, plus AK, FL, AZ, NM, and NV are in the same boat.

No, but the oil companies don't want EVs, so Republicans don't want EVs.

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