Road taxes: Gas cars pay them, why not electric vehicles?

[Kurmudgeon]

http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/transportation/blogs/road-taxes-gas-cars-pay-them-why-not-electric-vehicles?hpt=Sbin

[Pab Sungenis]

1. I already pay for my use of the roads

through tolls and local, state, and Federal taxes. If anything, electric cars should be thanked for cutting down on pollution and oil imports so they deserve a tax break.

[Fumesucker]

2. This seems like a solution in search of a problem..

It's not like we have vast numbers of electric cars on the road beating our poor highways to death with their vast torque, weight and blinding speed.

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. The more light-weight electric vehicles on the road, the fewer

fully-loaded gas tankers needed - and the trucks stress the highways far more than passenger vehicles. Gas taxes pay for road maintenance, electrics reduce need for road maintenance, so it's a wash.

[Fumesucker]

8. Yep, road damage by vehicles rises roughly with the cube of vehicle weight..

So a vehicle that weighs twice as much does 2^4 or about sixteen times as much damage..

[Vinnie From Indy]

3. Really?

Whatever!

[ZombieHorde]

4. The time isn't right. nt

[buddysmellgood]

5. We need to create incentives for electric vehicles, so no tax.

[ejpoeta]

6. i agree. let the incentive be the fact that you can avoid those taxes for now.

once EVs are more readily available and have some infrastructure to allow for longer distances of travel, then we can talk about taxes. i mean, the ones available are very short range and the hybrids have gas as well so people are paying taxes beyond the part that electric will go.

[damntexdem]

9. Because they don't use gasoline, so MAY be better for the environment.

And even hybrids use less gasoline, so pay less in gas taxes.

Further, electric vehicles, despite the weight of batteries, are among the lighter vehicles (e.g., compared to SUVs, not to mention semis) so tear the roads up less.

[Kurmudgeon]

10. The point being missed is once the government loses a revenue stream, it finds another.

If they can't get it by taxing gasoline, they'll look elsewhere.
I think the points of less mass and more efficiency of the electrics are good ones. However, if the government wants money, it'll get it one way or another. The only real question is when.