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Comment by embedding-shape | Hacker News Reader

> EVs on average are heavier than ICE vehicles, and road damage scales with weight very quickly

So then tax based on weight if that's the differentiator of the damage done? I guess in combination with mileage would make most sense, and add in a scale based on net worth too to make it extra goodie.

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Historically, we've taxed based on gasoline usage, which is a pretty decent proxy for both weight and distance traveled, so it ends up being a road use tax. EVs don't use gas, so we need to introduce new road use taxes specifically for them.

Where this new fee has issues is that it would charge EV owners roughly double the average amount paid by ICE owners in federal fuel tax, and wouldn't consider how much driving a given EV is actually doing.

I wonder if it makes more sense to just add a tax on tires. Tire wear for most vehicles should be proportional to actual weight [1] and mileage, modulo tire quality. So just slap a tax on each tire quality type and there is no need for a system to record the mileage and weight of every car.

[1] Commercial vehicle weight is strongly determined by the cargo load.

...except now you've incentivized everyone driving on bald tires and, unintentionally, killed a bunch of people when it rains.

Hey, at least this isn't a comment section about the states, which rate safety based on how the driver fares in a collision! Which would mean the people least likely to be hurt are the ones that are trying to cheat the tax, and the ones injured or killed are external to the vehicle.

Except of course it is: Americans externalizing costs to save a buck seems to have become endemic

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