this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2026
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Realistically we should be taxing by weight and miles driven as the former causes the most damage to the roads. At that point the propulsion type and efficiency don’t really matter. EVs actually would be taxed more given that they’re heavier, but it’d also proportionately tax trucks and larger vehicles correctly at that point.
You could easily implement it with a yearly odometer reading with your registration or inspection and every car has a GVWR registered with it.
...vehicle registration taxes should be based upon ton-miles driven and speed limits should be based upon kinetic energy...
Yes that would be fair, but IMO there should be an environment tax on gas.
How about just metering charging infrastructure and taxing by the kilowatt hr? Power consumed is directly proportional to the weight, distance, and rate of travel. A simple mandate that all home charging stations have to have a wireless or remote-readable meter attached, and all public fast-chargers are taxed by KWh. Easy, simple, and nearly frictionless.
No, that doesn’t work. You can charge anywhere.
If you watch that “Technology Connections” video that keeps going around Lemmy, you should not waste your money on a home charging station
A home charging station is just a convenience. A really nice convenience that I highly recommend, but unnecessary
And if we’re trying to be fair, that’s really not true either. There’s a wide range of efficiencies for different vehicles. On the extreme end, if Aptera succeeds, those drivers would pay nothing. More importantly, this also gives them another opportunity to charge unfairly to defend ICE vehicles
Simple weight and miles, regardless of technology and efficiency, and recorded at annual inspection or purchase/sale - ideally also keep the gas tax to help pay for its impact on the environment
As far as the variety of efficiencies, I don't see that as a downside. That just incentivizes higher efficiency systems if you assume the median efficiency for tax purposes.
That said you do make a valid point about non-standard charging set ups. I'm not entirely opposed to the odometer method, I just find most proposals for implementing it a barrier to adoption.
It’s already illegal to modify the odometer and many states have annual safety inspections where they could record such things
The strongest arguments against smreridinf the odometer are surveillance and safety react, but if you’re only recording it once a year or when sold, then you’re not losing privacy