[sasunde]

When I bought my Bolt in 2018, the DMV listed it as a gas fuel vehicle. I didn't notice until the renewal came up in 2019. I corrected that and I got slapped with a "one-time" $50 EV fee and sticker. That's now an annual fee that will increase every year until it is at $120, which is what a 32-mpg ICE vehicle would pay in total gas taxes (fed and state), assuming the average 12,000 miles/year. Of course, the State of Colorado is collecting the whole fee, not splitting it with the feds, so the state makes out on that. Ironically, the sticker must be affixed to the upper right (passenger-side) corner of the windshield. Because of the tinting on the top of the windshield, it's invisible from the outside.

 

[Joacchim]

Just received a letter from Missouri Dept of Revenue that they are charging a "Special Fuel Decal Fee" each year for LP, Natural gas and electric cars. Effective 1 Jan 2022 it will be $96 and go up 20% each year for the next 5 years. Anyone else received this letter? So much for trying to help the environment. I guess we are going to pay the State some sort of tax no matter what. Surprised non-smokers don't have to pay a "Non-Nicotine Fee" to make up for lost tax revenue on tobacco products. By my calculations within 5 years it will cost $200 a year just to own an EV. This is %^&$. I plan to write to Missouri Dept of Revenue and anyone else in the State Gov't I can get an address for. Not that it will do any good.

In Ohio EV owners have been paying $200/year (on top of normal annual registration fees) since 2020. Opinion: Time for Ohio to embrace electric transportation I understand the need to pay something to support road maintenance but shouldn't it be mileage based rather than a flat fee?

 

[ARob]

In Ohio EV owners have been paying $200/year (on top of normal annual registration fees) since 2020. Opinion: Time for Ohio to embrace electric transportation I understand the need to pay something to support road maintenance but shouldn't it be mileage based rather than a flat fee?

Even mile based fees would likely be an annual assessment. How much cost would be involved with mileage based schemes? If they require constant monitoring it could get quite high, if odometer inspections, medium cost, honor system, potential for abuse.

Flat fee is simplest from a cost perspective, and probably reasonably fair to the majority of owners. If there were senior and/or low mileage discounts, it could resolve some of the flat fee challenges. A flat fee with no odometer reporting, and file for a low mile exemption with odometer readings might be reasonably simple and cost effective.

 

[electrikchillipepper]

IMO, road taxes for all vehicles should be charged at vehicle registration, and be tied to miles driven, axles, and GVW.

However, this is a topic that's been discussed to death, in several other threads.

Agree with GregBrew on the fairest way to fund road construction and maintenance. Let’s just keep all the funds collected going to that one purpose.

 

[GregBrew]

Agree with GregBrew on the fairest way to fund road construction and maintenance. Let’s just keep all the funds collected going to that one purpose.

Good luck, with that.

 

[jefro]

Some states like mine have stopped doing maintenance. They claim they have contractors that fill pot holes and pick up trash and replace street lights. They money I pay must not be enough cause non of that is being done.
State told me to complain to the contractors. ????

 

[Pvillerob]

Boo freakin hoo!! Your gas tax will go up by a whole 10 cents! My heart bleeds peanut butter. 🙄

 

[Colt Hero]

IMO, road taxes for all vehicles should be charged at vehicle registration, and be tied to miles driven, axles, and GVW.

But how's that going to work? Is it going to be the "honor system" , or is every vehicle going to have to be inspected at registration time? If it's the latter, then I could see all 50 states requiring Vehicle Inspections in order to do it (currently only 19 states do some form of Inspection). But then - there was always (and probably still is) fraud with that, too.

Here's a brutal, heavy-handed solution: keep everything the way it is right now by building "smarts" into the vehicle (and Charging Stations) such that you can never charge the vehicle anywhere else but at "Authorized Charging Stations" (which would effectively replace traditional Gas Stations). Yeah, yeah, people would try to circumvent it, but then it would (theoretically) be caught during the annual Inspection (and the very heavy fines would put an end to it).

 

[GregBrew]

But how's that going to work? Is it going to be the "honor system" , or is every vehicle going to have to be inspected at registration time? If it's the latter, then I could see all 50 states requiring Vehicle Inspections in order to do it (currently only 19 states do some form of Inspection). But then - there was always (and probably still is) fraud with that, too.

Here's a brutal, heavy-handed solution: keep everything the way it is right now by building "smarts" into the vehicle (and Charging Stations) such that you can never charge the vehicle anywhere else but at "Authorized Charging Stations" (which would effectively replace traditional Gas Stations). Yeah, yeah, people would try to circumvent it, but then it would (theoretically) be caught during the annual Inspection (and the very heavy fines would put an end to it).

I never claimed it would be easy!

I, like you, expect the contrary to be true.

 

[ga2500ev]

But how's that going to work? Is it going to be the "honor system" , or is every vehicle going to have to be inspected at registration time? If it's the latter, then I could see all 50 states requiring Vehicle Inspections in order to do it (currently only 19 states do some form of Inspection). But then - there was always (and probably still is) fraud with that, too.

What I've suggested for this is using a default average mileage that's used to compute the tax bill. Then you'll have 3 groups of people to manage. 1st is folks who get a bill and just pay it. Done and done. Second is folks who are way over the mileage, like driving 30k a year. They'll be happy to only pay for the average.

The final group are folks who are way under the average. Give them the option to present a notarized document with the current mileage and their tax bill is recomputed with the actual mileage. So, if someone only drives 2K miles per year, they would save a ton of money on their tax bill. But they'd have to go through the hassle of documenting the actual mileage.

None of these require annual inspections, nor information scanning tools.

ga2500ev

 

[BobBolt]

IMO, road taxes for all vehicles should be charged at vehicle registration, and be tied to miles driven, axles, and GVW.

However, this is a topic that's been discussed to death, in several other threads.

Agreed. For those of you that have driven commercially you'll be familiar with IFTA. This system works for all the trucks and buses on the road in Canada and the US.
No reason that with services like OnStar and GPS etc that this cannot be easily done automagically and doesn't require any kind of monitoring or inspections beyond some amount of compliance monitoring or QA program etc. Commercial vehicles buy their fuel tax free and pay based on distance driven in each jurisdiction.
The International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) is an agreement among the 10 provinces in Canada and 48 states in the United States of America that simplifies the reporting by interjurisdictional carriers (IJCs) of motor fuel use taxes. The Agreement allows IJCs, operating qualified motor vehicle(s), to report and pay taxes owing to all jurisdictions to a single base jurisdiction.

 

[jefro]

If the mile cost gets too unfair can one put a Bolt on supports and run backwards to roll back odometer?