Dino said:
Arizona Considers Charging Electric Cars Tax At 1.43¢ Per Mile
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1072614_arizona-considers-charging-electric-cars-tax-at-1-43-per-mile" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
at 99 mpge that’s equivalent to $1.40 a gallon! :shock:
Here's what I typed up to send to our legislators:
Dear [Legislator],
It has come to my attention that a bill (HB 2257) is being introduced proposing to place a per mile tax on electric vehicles to close the “loophole” in the present road maintenance funding through gas tax. While I recognize the need for EVs to pay their share of road maintenance this bill is:
- 1) Premature – represents a disincentive for clean vehicles which are already disadvantaged due to the high cost of purchase and limited range. EVs are such a small percentage of the vehicles on the road that little real revenue is really being lost. The only thing this bill can accomplish is to slow the adoption of clean vehicles.
2) Unfair – AZ gas tax is presently 18 cents a gallon. At 1.43¢ per mile, the proposed EV tax is equivalent to the tax paid by a gasoline car that gets 12.6mpg. The average car on the road gets twice this fuel efficiency so the tax is unfairly taxing EVs at 2X the rate of the average car.
3) Won’t work – The bill simply creates new loopholes. The bill defines an EV as an electric car “that is not capable of being powered by motor vehicle fuel.” This will just make purchasers lean toward a Chevy Volt, plug-in Prius, or other hybrid that doesn’t fit this description. EV manufacturers will simply put token gasoline engines in to avoid this tax. Since these other vehicles are also fully capable of operating without using gasoline the loop-hole still exists.
There is a better, fairer solution that should be pursued instead:
Simply eliminate the gas tax and institute a per-mile, per-wheel tax on all vehicles. The gas tax was convenient when all cars used gasoline, but now that other types of vehicles are entering the field, rather than trying to keep patching a system that doesn’t make sense, fix it. If we are now going to have to deal with the hassle of tracking mileage to ensure proper taxes on some of the vehicles, is it not simpler to just apply it to all vehicles? This is actually a better, fairer tax than the gas tax since it completely eliminates the fuel efficiency from the formula. The maintenance costs for the roads have nothing to do with the efficiency of the cars that use them so why should the tax?
I sincerely hope you take time to consider these points when you work on this bill.
Sincerely,
[TickTock]
