The Texas state home unanimously voted (145-0) to go a invoice that may impose a $200 annual price on EV homeowners. The invoice is now on the desk of Governor Greg Abbott, who is predicted to signal it into regulation.

The rationale for taxing EVs is that, in contrast to legacy automobiles, EVs pay no fuel taxes, which give a part of the funding for street upkeep.

As EV advocates reliably level out, there are a number of weak factors to this argument.

A Shopper Experiences examine discovered that the common ICE automobile solely pays $71 in tax per yr.

The quantity of fuel tax paid will depend on the variety of miles traveled and the effectivity of a automobile—burn extra fuel, pay extra tax. EV taxes are indiscriminate—the motive force of a Nissan Leaf who drives a small variety of miles every year can pay the identical as somebody who makes cross-country journeys in a Hummer EV.

In accordance with the Dallas Morning Information, fuel taxes at present make up 29% of Texas’s freeway funds. Texas prices 20 cents per gallon in fuel tax—this is among the lowest charges within the nation, and it hasn’t been raised since 1991. The federal authorities provides 18.4 cents per gallon (28.4 for diesel). This charge hasn’t been raised since 1993, though inflation between 1993 and 2022 amounted to 93%. In contrast to fuel taxes, some state EV taxes (not Texas’s, apparently) are listed to inflation, or improve at a hard and fast charge every year.

Honest or not, Texas’s new tax is in no way unprecedented. In accordance with the Nationwide Convention of State Legislatures, 32 states at present assess a particular annual tax on EVs (along with the annual registration price charged for all automobiles). These taxes (or charges, for those who favor) are assessed even in EV-friendly states similar to California ($108, growing every year), Washington ($150 for an EV, $75 for a hybrid) and Oregon ($110). A number of states, together with Alabama and Georgia, cost $200 a yr. In 2021, a proposed Florida regulation that might have imposed an EV tax did not go the legislature.

Have Republicans lastly discovered a tax that they like? Properly, as Ronald Reagan mentioned, “In order for you extra of one thing, subsidize it; if you’d like much less of one thing, tax it.”

Sources: Dallas Morning Information by way of CarBuzz, CleanTechnica