Re:To Save Money on Insurance, Drivers Agree to Intrusive Mo...
by bequanna on Thursday June 29, 2023 @08:57AM
(#36519767)
ICE vehicles do pay taxes by weight. Larger vehicles use more fuel and pay more taxes.
Re:To Save Money on Insurance, Drivers Agree to Intrusive Mo...
by zimzam on Thursday June 29, 2023 @09:09AM
(#36519870)
But this isn't necessarily proportional to the amount of wear-and-tear they cause on roads.
I would guess that we are talking about very small numbers -- certainly under 5% of drivers.[1] Whatever principle Utah is asserting to "recover" fuel taxes from EV drivers isn't making much of a difference.
At the same time, the Utah policy is clearly discouraging EV adoption.
> EVs also wear roads more than gas cars do, on average, because of their higher weight.
We are talking about a small presence in the automobile market. If everyone were to drive a Tesla, then yes we would have more heavy passenger cars on the road.
For example, a 2023 Honda Civic weighs between 1,429 kg and 1,517 kg. One best-selling SUV, the Toyota RAV4, weighs 1755 kg.
But the most popular type of vehicle in the US (and in Utah) by sales is the pick-up truck. The top three pick-up trucks each weigh about 2500 kg.
If we are going to start quibbling about weight this way, we will need to recognise that drivers of vehicles should be taxed according to their obesity to maintain our roadways.
[1] https://electrek.co/2022/08/24/current-ev-registrations-in-t...