Recently, Texas took a pretty harsh stance against owners of electric vehicles by proposing Senate Bill 1728, which would punish EV owners for simply owning an EV. That sounds cliche, but in essence, this is exactly what the bill is doing while being disguised as “fairness.” The claim was that EV owners need to pay their fair share and make up for fuel taxes that they don’t pay... The proposed fee was previously an additional $200 EV tax. That fee has now gone up... Added together, those numbers total $250 to $400+ in annual fees.
Currently, EV owners in Texas are not allowed to take delivery of their vehicles from Tesla in the state — they have to either travel out of state or arrange a third party to ship their vehicles to them. For those who will be purchasing made-in-Texas Teslas, this also applies. Tesla will have to ship the made-in-Texas Teslas out of state, where either a third party will deliver to the customer at the customer’s expense or the customer has to travel to pick up their vehicle. Unfortunately, Texas isn’t the only state that is seemingly anti-EV. Many states have this problem.
More at CleanTechnica.
Indiana has been doing this for years. It's actually cheaper to simply pay for gas for the year than pay the extra taxes for an electric, or even hybrid vehicle, by design.
ReplyDeleteSo this is typical of Texas BS but I do think there is missing context here. The gas tax is used to maintain the roads and EV's do use and wear out the roads with out contributing to their up keep. Now I think they should find away to, you know, actually encourage EVs while still funding the road maintenance. Using the gas tax to fund the roads, absent EVs, is kind of elegant. The people who drive a lot pay a lot. The people who drive heavy trucks pay more because they use more. The people who drive little pay less.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the you have to buy your Tesla out of state thing is because of a law saying car manufacturers may not sell cars directly but must instead sell via an independent dealer. Tesla does not have dealers, just direct sales. Ford, for example can sell their EV cars as normal through the dealerships, but also could not sell directly to consumers. This is kind of bogus but it is an old existing law, not directly aimed at Tesla. The idea is you have more competition and more jobs by having third party dealers.
Thanks for the extra context! I was curious about the "out of state" Tesla thing.
DeleteUsing the gas tax to fund the roads, absent EVs, is kind of elegant.
DeleteThe solution is obvious, right? Tax the power that goes into EVs.
We pay an extra $200/year for our EV registration in Ohio.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget asphalt is cheap because it's a byproduct of making gasoline/diesel fuel.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly why we can't have nice things. Too many Luddites getting in the way.
ReplyDeleteThis is not news. A lot of states are thinking about taxing electric vehicles to make up for the lost gas tax. I think it makes sense.
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