"Mileage could be tracked by plugging an electronic device into a vehicle, using a vehicle's built-in tracking system or by simply submitting photos of the vehicle's odometer, according to Caltrans"

That's the question that made me read the article. Just sounds great! What a FABULOUS IDEA!!

I read the article because I was like “doesn’t this just discourage EV usage” and then discovered that’s the point

I missed the part of the article that laid out the intent to discourage EV usage?

For discussion purposes: what will the funding for highway maintenance be based on when over half the vehicles are electric?

As someone who drives a gas car only seldom, I don't mind paying by mile. Cost in proportion to use. Measuring that is the problem.

The gas tax had usage and efficiency built in and was paid gradually by consumers as they used the gas. EVs change this completely.

1. How to measure usage

2. How to account for efficiency and weight

3. How to not get big bills from accrued usage paid less frequently

1 and 3 are important. Efficiency matters not at all for road budgeting. Weight would be good, EVs are heavier than gas equivalents but when a tractor-trailer screws up pavement with its heavy crane load or similar it would be great to recoup that cost.

For (2) registration being weight per year seems good enough to me, it should just be a lot more, especially if a vehicle is oversized for its axels or license class.

I don't like parked trash and I believe the disposal/recycling process will have environmental impacts proportional to weight in terms of energy, etc.

They should charge by vehicle weight as well as miles driven as this has an impact on the amount of wear to roads. Heavier vehicles also produce more waste from tire wear.

It would be interesting to see what effects all this would have on other policies though, as removing gas taxes could encourage more driving or more incentive to purchase an ICE car. Taxes based on weight might discourage EVs, but could also discourage large trucks which might otherwise increase if the gas tax was removed. All very interesting.

Big trucks are subsidized for the reason that they bring products to market that would otherwise be unable to be economically transported.

So, you’d need a separate tariff for the big trucks, but you should tax them based on weight per axle.

Smaller vehicles could easily be taxed by weight per axle, which is the important factor for road damage. Just make sure that you’re fairly taxing all smaller vehicles equally, and not intentionally making it harder for EVs.