Just yesterday I recorded an incredible conversation with the archivist from Ford, formerly of Coca-Cola, about the history of fueling infrastructure in this country and let me just say... when you listen to that conversation, you'll understand why we haven't cracked the code on EV charging yet.
There are two camps here:
One understands what basic-ass AC charging can do and that overnight charging takes care of all local needs full stop. That's me, wishing we focused on this.
The other imagines EVs getting used like ICE vehicles, and pulls the trigger assuming this makes sense.
I would wager every report you see from someone being dissatisfied with an EV is someone who could not charge at home and got one anyway.
And every report you see where EV owners question what on Earth people are thinking comes from people who can charge at home.
And by focusing so much on DC fast charging built up and effectively not at all on getting slow charging at apartment buildings and workplaces, we are setting up a whole class of folks to not understand the best ways to use their EVs.
This includes policy makers who could help renters.
It's also setting up a class division of, "people who can use EVs reliably" and "people who won't get an EV because it's difficult to charge it regularly."
Plus the EV registration tax is setting up another divide too, since unlike a fuel tax it means residents only are paying for roads.
If I had a suggestion it would be that they leave the registration tax (which against fuel $.38/gal is cheaper for EVs) and add a Fast Charger tax for travelers.
My experience regarding the fees for EV registration is that they can seem ridiculous but as soon as you explain to someone that since BEVs don't visit gas stations they don't pay fuel taxes, they realize why it's needed pretty quickly.
How best to do it is debatable but its need really isn't.
In Ohio the EV registration fee is $200. By my calculations if you commute or drive enough to fill up once a week, you'd be spending $300 a year just in state gas taxes ($0.385 per gallon).
Sounds reasonable to me.
Interesting. Probably different assumptions (or I’m bad at math), but my math in Wisconsin ($175 EV registration surcharge) said I’d need to drive over 15k miles a year to pay that in state gas taxes today
That’s a lot of driving, and way more than we actually do
I don't think it's too complicated at all. Calculate the average miles driven per car, calculate average amount of MPG in ICE cars, extrapolate for EVs that don't fill up.
Also in Ohio we pay $100 for Hybrid registration. Again makes sense since we're going to the gas station half as often.
Didn’t say it was too complicated, just interesting that we got such (apparently) different results
Mine was $175/.33=530 gallons of state gas tax, * 30 mpg and you get 16,000 miles
I’m not in touch with how much people drive these days, but that feels really high
Yeah I'm not sure where they draw the line at. Sure a lot of us suburbanites are just going to work/school/shopping but then there are the random trips to the city or across the state. Rural folks spend way more time and miles on the road too, that'll drive up (hehe) the numbers.
I think that's more of an efficiency punishment.
My 2006 Jeep Liberty gets ~17mpg so that's $200/.38=526 gal/tax and 8949 miles using your math above.
I keep seeing Semis as "6.5 mpg" as a number which would really bring in the dough.
Are you accounting for the difference in registering an ICE vehicle? I.E. if registering an EV is $175 and registering an ICEV is $50, you should be using $125 for your calculations.
In the state of Wyoming, it's an additional fee so it's an apples to apples comparison (Showing Laramie County's website because vehicle registration is by county clerks)
www.laramiecountywy.gov/County-Gover...
Wyoming it's $200 for EV charge and as of June 30 it's $0.38/gal
That fuel tax is mostly coming from people traveling down I-80 or going to Yellowstone/Teton which is why this is a major concern for WY I think.
Ya I don’t like the idea of going flat fee for a lot of reasons, but it really changes things for states that get a lot of tourist traffic
I buy gas in basically every midwestern state but when I get an EV Wisconsin will be the only one getting paid
