Fuel taxes vs. EV taxes.
This is a comparison between the fuel taxes paid by ICE vehicles and the proposed registration fees for EVs.
I have a Chevy Bolt, so I will use that as my baseline.
The bolt has a 3600 pound curb weight. Looking at ICE vehicles on the market around the same weight, I calculated the average fuel economy is 24.7 city, 32 highway, 26.9 combined.
I have a 44 mile daily commute, 5 days per week, 50 weeks per year. That calculates out to 11,000 miles per year for my commute. Add in miscellaneous other driving, and call it 12,000 per year.
The State legislature of Florida is proposing a $200 annual registration fees, and now the federal government is proposing a $500 annual registration fee, for a total of $700 per year in annual registration fees on EVs.
The State of Florida charges 37.325 cents per gallon in fuel tax. The federal government charges 18.4 cents per gallon.
The overwhelming majority of my driving is highway, so I’ll take the highway mileage figure for simplicity.
12,000 miles divided by 32mpg is 375 gallons of gasoline, which comes out to $140 for the State of Florida, and another $69 for the federal government, for a total fuel tax of $209 for the average 3600 pound vehicle driven by a person who commutes like I do.
To sum that up, that’s $700 in registration fees for EVs “to replace what they don’t pay in fuel taxes”, when an equivalent ICE vehicle would pay just $209 in fuel taxes.
Why are congressional Republicans, and Florida state Republicans, proposing to charge me combined nearly three and a half times what an equivalent ICE vehicle would pay? Why are Florida Republicans proposing to charge me an additional 30% over what an equivalent ICE vehicle would pay? Why are congressional Republicans proposing to charge me over 7 times what an equivalent ICE vehicle would pay? My speculation is that their owners in the petroleum industry are terrified by electric vehicles, and are trying desperately to tie back the hands of time so they can continue to make profits from their products.
So what to do about this? The transition to electric vehicles is unstoppable. In one thing Republican legislators are correct: EV owners do not pay their fair share of the taxes necessary to support the infrastructure they use. (In fairness, ICE owners don’t either, but that is a different subject.) I don’t object to paying my fair share, but I do object to paying my share and 7 other people’s as well. The only fair solution I can see is to eliminate fuel taxes altogether, and charge all vehicle owners road use fees based on the weight of the vehicle and the miles driven. That would even the playing field between ICE vehicles and EVs.
