this post was submitted on 20 May 2026
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Charging a flat gas tax would be simpler than metering every gallon of gasoline sold, but it wouldn't be fair, and we don't do that. So why should we do it for EVs?
Well the article is about the federal government so your state laws are not the subject of the discussion at hand.
You said it was simple to collect odometer readings from all EVs. I disagree. I think that's the most labor intensive solution we could come up with.
We meter every gallon of gas sold because that's an easy thing to do at the point of sale. The gas station already tracks how much fuel you're buying so they know how much to charge you which means there is no extra work required for anyone. You could say the same for DC fast charging an EV but using any other power source would require additional work by someone that does not currently have to happen. That adds complexity and cost to the proposed solution that is not necessary.
I don't think it would be all that much more effort, to be honest.
All states require vehicle registration and it would just be supplying the current odometer reading at point of annual registration, and comparing it to a list of mileages to determine cost.
Now don't take me wrong, that list can be as simple a base amount divided by how many miles it did, or it could be as complicated as breaking down every model vehicle and having a different fee for every model.
Data storage wise, it's just checking the previous odometer reading to the current odometer reading, both are still there. The difference is how much mileage you had.
human effort wise it's just an extra box for the registration form
Honestly, there's an argument that it would be easier to have that system than the current system that we have for gas tax. Since the gas tax system is required at every single pump out there every time you fill where the mile-based odometer reading would only be town offices/bmv as a yearly thing