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electric cars, hybrids and politics?

 
Posts: 8898
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We have a hybrid...a Ford CMax 2016.
We have been 'penalized' $100 each year for 5 years tacked on to our tag renewal which is $27.  The past two years it was $50 each year.
The states argument is that it's because we don't buy as much gas thus don't pay enough road tax šŸ™„

We like the car and suppose it will last as long as we need a car...hopefully another 10 years or so.  My eyesight is too far gone for driving but so far Steve's is good.
We drive 20- 60 miles once a week and  a 200 mile round trip every couple months.

I've heard of rewards for driving electric, rebates or something, but punishment seems underhanded...do other  states do this?

We live in the previously blue, currently very red state of Arkansas and expect this to get worse even though the state has lithium mining in the south and one would expect some support for electric cars and hybrids?

 
master gardener
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I mean...the public roadways do have to be maintained. And historically, our entire system was built around funding that with a tax on gasoline. I don't drive a hybrid or electric car yet, so I didn't realize that was a thing until you wrote about it, but it seems like an OK idea to me.
 
Judith Browning
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Then, maybe a more fair way might be to tax/ penalize by number of miles driven?
We are lightweights as far as road use.
 
Judith Browning
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It's a state by state thing...many do not charge extra for driving an electric or hybrid.
 
Christopher Weeks
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Yeah, I see what you're saying. Accounting for mileage seems like the way to go, but I'm not sure how those data would be collected. In AR, do you have to take the car for annual safety/emissions inspection? Maybe the recorded mileage at the time of inspection could play into the annual fees.
 
Judith Browning
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Christopher Weeks wrote:Yeah, I see what you're saying. Accounting for mileage seems like the way to go, but I'm not sure how those data would be collected. In AR, do you have to take the car for annual safety/emissions inspection? Maybe the recorded mileage at the time of inspection could play into the annual fees.



I'm not sure why but inspections were dropped here years ago.
We had so many old clunkers on their last legs that those inspections were a comedy routine but we usually managed to pass.

We finally have a car that is reliable and somewhat less of a footprint than our old gas guzzlers and affordable to drive.
AND we are on a fixed income so every bit of it matters.

Steve thinks they dropped inspections here because of cost...might be before Clinton was governor.


 
Judith Browning
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Does anyone know the political climate for electric cars with the new administration?
I thought I heard that much of Biden's work promoting them has been undone already.
 
Christopher Weeks
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I think the new administration's party is generally hostile to anything that can be perceived as "green". Trump mentioned in his inauguration speech yesterday that he would end the electric vehicle mandate and we could buy whatever cars we wanted. I was wondering what that referred to and then today I noticed this piece from Politifact (https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/jan/20/fact-checking-president-donald-trumps-inauguration/)

Trump misled when he said, "With my actions today, we will end the Green New Deal, and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate."

No "Green New Deal" is in effect. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., introduced a 2019 resolution that offered a broad vision for responding to climate change, but it never became law. After Biden became president, Congress passed legislation, including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, that advanced some climate policy goals. Trump cannot undo laws by executive order.

As of the evening of Jan. 20, we had not yet seen what Trumpā€™s executive actions will bring. In 2024, Bidenā€™s administration, building on a target set in its first year, issued a rule that 56% of all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. to be electric or hybrids by 2032.



I don't know if or how that will affect people who own such cars. I'd guess minimally.
 
Judith Browning
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thank you!
for the information and the very useful link.
 
steward
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Our car insurance is Provincially mandated. When we renew it, we are to take a photo with a date stamp to show them. We get a discount on our insurance if we are below a certain number of kilometers since our last renewal.

If the genuine goal of the surcharge on electric cars is for maintenance, there are multiple sides to the problem:
1. Yes, the gas is taxed to do the same thing, so it's not an "extra tax" it's just being taxed a different way.
2. The roads need to be maintained whether you drive on them daily or monthly. Much of the maintenance is weather related, so more hours of traffic doesn't directly relate to the costs - but it is a factor.
3. In my province, the reality is that a pile of the money from gas taxes doesn't go to road maintenance. A specific amount goes to subsidizing public transportation, and I believe a bunch goes into "general revenue". Public services require someone to pay for them. There tends to be a lot of whining if property taxes go up, so hiding them in gas taxes is one way to do it. So if the electric tax seems a bit high to you, you need to look into where that revenue is really going.

Using odometer readings to make these sort of taxes as fair as possible is easy to do. Even if an individual doesn't have a camera, all it takes is a friend with a cell phone to help them out once a year. If you look into it and still feel it's particularly unfair to people who drive minimally, I would propose a mileage based system and see if they show interest. It does make sense to me that people who drive more, should pay more for roads.
 
pollinator
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Hi Judith,

We have "domiciled" in TX, OH, NC and MS and traveled all over. At one time we had a 2010 TDI (diesel) VW Jetta and got 43+ MPG, in the city. When we researched residency implications in the states listed, and if $$$ savings was the goal, owning an electric or hybrid did not make sense for us in those states. At the time, we considered trading to something else but we could not do better than what the car we had provided.

It is interesting that you get penalized on top of possibly getting less MPG than some other modern vehicles with gas or diesel engines that would not be penalized.

Most of our acquaintances that own electric or hybrid vehicles do so for ideological/philosophical reasons and overall cost of ownership is not considered.

It does not seem that these nuances are very well understood by most states, unfortunately. I am not sure how it should be handled to be fair to everyone except what was already mentioned on taxing per mileage. Then again, nowadays we have a 1 ton dually diesel chevy. Would it be fair for us to pay the same amount for a mileage based system? Could be if they keep fuel tax because we'd be buying more fuel. So I guess it would have to have both, fuel and mileage based taxes to be fair.

I don't know anyone that could run on that platform and get elected. It may be best for some to find a conventionally fueled vehicle that gets good mileage to get the best cost savings in our current times, if cost savings is the goal.  
 
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