Chevy Volt a Failure - GM to Layoff 1,300

I'm at the point where I do that now with my hoopty ICE car. I was lucky to transfer to a job a mile from home and my journalism side hustle is now done in my PJs if I even bother to dress.

 

Another EV issue, which the Washington state Legislature briefly debated before throwing up its hands and doing nothing: A whole lot of road repairs/infrastructure work is paid for via the gasoline tax. And over the years it’s worked pretty well, because those who use the highways most pay more to repair them (more or less).

As a higher percentage of EVs are on the highways, how will those drivers pay for road repairs? A flat fee or tax? “On your honor” mileage reports? Government tracking your mileage?

 

I pay a yearly EV fee on my license plates. I expect those will keep increasing as the gas tax starts to take a hit from decreased gasoline usage.

 

That makes sense. You pay more to license an EV because you're not paying gas taxes. Seems fair to me. Now they just have to set the amount.

 

The roads are awesome because of the gas tax. Come drive where I do.

 

We all benefit from the roads - whether we own and use a car or not.

As other fuel options come online, we're going to need a different tax structure to pay for them.

 

Meanwhile, in California:

 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-021-00814-9

 

Arkansas put in a $200 registration fee for all-electric vehicles, $100 for plug-in hybrids and $50 for conventional hybrids. I'm surprised they didn't put a fee in for the Chevy Spark, which rivals most of what hybrids get.

However, the feds are still offering a significant tax break for purchasing an electric vehicle. Up to $17K for a high-end Audi.

Arkansas electric vehicle rebates, credits and incentives | Edmunds

 

Brand loyalty, at the top end of the spectrum (Toyota and Honda) is 60 percent, just for reference.

People change vehicles rapidly. If 80 percent are keeping a technology that limits their driving choices, that’s actually encouraging as battery life increases.

Also, inflationary pressures and tax incentive elimination would nudge many to decide to go back to a traditional engine.

And, as always, a good percentage of humans are stubborn and vote against their own and their planet’s self interests. They can’t be helped, but simply planned around. They will still have the opportunity to buy a gas-powered vehicle for a very long time, I suspect. Like people who insisted they’d never own a cellphone in 2006.

 

A couple of places. are piloting a mileage based tax. That would coincide with a cut in the gas tax. That’s probably the easiest way to do it.

 

The trick is how they accurately measure the mileage. Cameras? Interactive odometers? On-your-honor reporting by car owners?