36Tango

In 2019 the USA burned about 140 billion gallons of gas. Federal and State road taxes are about 50 cents per gallon, or 70 billion dollars in 2019. The thought behind taxing gas is those who use the roads should pay for the maintenance. Electrics use no gas, so they do not "chip into" the maintenance fund. Will we make that up by charging extra fees for electrics (no way)? Instead, the same number of maintenance dollars will just be spread out over fewer gallons. If we burn 100 billion gallons of gas, but still need 70 billion dollars for maintenance, the tax will need to go up 20 cents per gallon if we continue to let electrics ride tax free.

Aspiring the US to have zero emissions when the rest of the world is not following suit is a bit like 1/2 of the pool at the lake bar being a no pee zone. Lets let the rest of the world catch up with us (or at least get closer) before we attempt to set net standards.

ICDEDPPL

in 30 years people will be out there looking for Diesel truck barn finds .
Barrett Jackson will have F450`s rolling across stage lmao

t500hps

Where have you been,........some states (primarily California) have been trying to institute a per mile tax to capture the Electric car market/tax. Obviously they won't change the gas tax and those of us burning fossil fuels will just pay BOTH taxes.

Keith Atlanta

I havent thought of that yet. Where is the government going to make up $70B in taxes from the fuel if cars go all electric? Electricity taxes?

Tropical Buzz

Believe me - once people start to see and feel the performance potential of electric vehicles, other than die-hard advocates of IC engines and nostalgia buffs, no one will want a petroleum burning car. People are terrified of change - particularly when acceptance of that change also requires a big paradigm shift - challenging the political and social attitudes they cling to to comfort themselves at night. Imagine the days in the dawn of the new fangled horseless carriages. Die hard horse riders hated these ridiculous, clattering, noisy contraptions. On the Horseshoe Only Forum back then, good ol' cowboys hollered " Them goldarned things need special trails! They can't run across the badlands, and by golly - where in tarnation are all the fuel, repair and water stations gonna come from?? Who the heck is gonna pay for all them roadways and such?" They swore that these stupid things that couldn't outrun a good horse between two trading posts were nothing but a novelty fad for some fancy pants fops who couldn't handle a horse anyway and they would never catch on. Besides - no real self-respecting man would ever give up his cayuse for some smoky, sissy, unreliable rattletrap!

Well - it turns out that as always, the capacity of industry to tool up and rise to meet an "impossible" challenge was vastly underestimated - the same mistake the Axis powers would make later on in the aftermath of Pearl Harbour. Those who can appreciate what makes the status quo desirable but are also excited by the possibilities that new technology can bring will rise apart from the fretting, frightened naysayers to drive the investment in capital, imagination and ingenuity needed to accomplish the "impossible" and before you know it; what was once far-fetched, pie in the sky nonsense suddenly becomes mainstream and people reaping the benefits of the advancement soon forget what life was like in the (good) old days. As might be indicated by my forum moniker, I'm a big fan of loud, fast high performance machinery; but I can say one thing for sure: The future is coming and it's going to bring levels of performance, comfort and all-around usability that have only been imagined in the (good ol') past.

dbhammer

it costs me an extra $90 a yr to register my tesla here in the county that i live in. assume that is them trying to capture some extra revenue they would normally get from me buying gas.

36Tango

That is the equivalent of the tax on about 180 gallons of gas. With a car getting 30mpg, that is about 5,400 miles. Doesn't appear to be enough "make-up" tax, but who knows.........

Interceptor

The EV's will have one of these in the trunk.

1960brookwood

Coal is not really an option for some. 3 plants within about 30 miles have been decommissioned with the rest slated to be retired in phases over the next 20 years. The wife and I watched this come down last Friday

SabrToothSqrl

love my Tesla.
Have a bulletproof Cyber Truck that can tow 14,000lbs on order... and 0-60 as fast as a new corvette while on 35" tires. lmk when y'all wanna race