• DevCat@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    There was a discussion a couple of years ago around gasoline taxes and how they are supposed to pay for roadway maintenance. The question came up about EVs. There were discussions about how to include EVs in the taxation system so they would pay for their fair share of the road. One of the options was to impose a tax attached to your vehicle registration based upon the weight of the vehicle. The greater the weight, the more wear and tear it produces on the road surface. This might be one solution to the barrier problem, namely moving the extra cost to the reason for the extra cost.

    • blazera@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      ah yes, another anti-environment tax. More barriers to fossil-fuel free adoption. As you would expect, Mississippi already has this tax. Don’t be like Mississippi.

      • lud@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Then add some exceptions to cars that aren’t as bad for the environment like electric cars.

        Maybe exclude batteries for the weight calculation.

        It isn’t a hard problem to solve.

      • eltrain123@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Wouldn’t be anti-environmental… it would be for all vehicles including ICE and commercial, as well.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Some states do exactly that, or did back in the day. 30-years ago in Oklahoma, an old 2-ton dump truck with an antique plate was $20, a new Corvette $600. I think Texas flipped that and charged by weight vs. value.

    • lemmyingly@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      In the country I reside, everyone pays for the roads through income tax. Vehicle owners pay emissions tax. I think this is fair since everyone relies on the roads even if they never travel down a road themselves.

    • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      And the heavy vehicles get classified as light cargo so are largely exempt from those taxes. They’re promoting and building heavy “cargo” vehicles specifically because they get exemptions for fuel efficiency and taxes (depending on location).

    • Pika@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      An alternative idea that I mentioned on a thread yesterday about vehicles with high bumpers, adjust the license class system to be more strict regarding vehicles. You already have to have extra training in a different license to run transport vehicles or semi trucks you should have to do the same with large vehicles, I’m not saying ban every pickup truck out there because I fully agree that trucks are a hard requirement especially in snow covered States like mine but there is a difference between having a pickup truck and having a monster truck at least in my opinion heavier or taller than low end transport vehicles

      • MrMcGasion@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Agreed, there’s also plenty of people who think that just because they have a large vehicle, that they’re immune to the snow. Obviously there’s a quantity of snow that trucks are more necessary for, but I’ll admit to feeling a bit smug when I see ditches full of abandoned trucks and SUVs, as I drive by in my little front wheel drive sedan.

    • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Every mile an EV drives is already taxed as we already tax electricity consumption. There is no reason to add a tax for something already taxed.

  • dan1101@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Yeah well let’s quit making 7000 pound consumer vehicles. Small EVs would be more efficient and better for the environment because they need less materials to build and and less energy to recharge.

    • filister@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Judging by the general trend I don’t think this is happening anytime soon. The overall car industry is obsessed with even bigger cars.

      And even in Europe it is sickening to see those half buses on our roads. And this is especially true for big cities, where parking space is very limited and usually those cars occupy park space for 1.5-2 cars.

      And knowing that the fertility rate is really going down I wonder what justifies those cars.

      • realitista@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That’s because the USA subsidizes bigger trucks as “work vehicles”. This practice needs to stop and they need to be taxed more than smaller vehicles.

        • CoopaLoopa@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          State vehicle registration where I’m at is based on vehicle weight. Costs about $400 to renew the registration on my daily driver and $600 to renew for a larger truck. Motorcycles are only like $80 to renew.

          Consumers are being taxed more for larger vehicles, it’s the manufacturers trying to avoid safety regulations that are seeing the cost benefits.

          • realitista@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            This article summarizes the subsidies I’m talking about. Here’s an excerpt:

            For now, the important point is that trucks generally are more profitable than cars thanks to two big government incentives, both of them historical footnotes.

            The first is the so-called chicken tax, a 25 percent tariff imposed by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 on foreign-built work vehicles as part of a chicken-related trade war with Europe. If you’re making a pickup or cargo van in the United States, profits should be higher, because foreign factories can’t come close to undercutting you on price.

            The second incentive lies in the fine print of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards adopted in 1975, Gerald Ford’s reluctant response to a crippling Middle East oil embargo that sent gas prices soaring. To protect American commerce, work trucks and light trucks were subject to less-strict CAFE standards than family sedans. Trucks are also exempt from the 1978 gas guzzler tax, which adds $1,000 to $7,700 to the price of sedans that get 22.5 or fewer miles to the gallon.

        • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          That’s because the USA subsidizes bigger trucks as “work vehicles”.

          Can you cite this? Don’t get me wrong, I understand that if it’s actually a work vehicle you probably get some tax credits/breaks, but I highly doubt many consumers are getting these breaks for buying large vehicles.

            • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              I watched most of the video, it’s primarily about safety. It’s says the growth is mainly due to the regulations not applying the same to light trucks, which SUVs are classified as. This seems to contradict the claim that I was asking about.

              If there is something about the state subsidizing the vehicles and I missed it, I would appreciate a time stamp. Noone needs to convince me that suvs are unsafe and an environmental disaster.

        • nothead@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’m guessing you don’t actually pay attention to the tax law, then. Annual vehicle registration (aka, a vehicle ownership tax) is more expensive as the weight on the vehicle goes up. Vehicles over a certain weight limit require more complex and strict drivers license classes (granted, class B starts at 26,001 lbs which is way higher than even today’s heaviest consumer cars), and any vehicle used for work has higher insurance and regulatory costs, regardless of the size.

          Buying an F350 (a truck that really only has a place in very specific situations anyway) requires so much extra work and almost always requires a class B license because of the kind of work being done with it. People who choose to get something like that because of small-dick syndrome are idiots. And that’s coming from a person who used to drive 18-wheelers and still has a compact SUV as my daily driver.

      • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah because emission standards are based on size and weight. So why spend the money making environmentally effective equipment when you can just make everything bigger and still rake in money?

    • labsin@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Small PHEV’s would be ideal for the current generation. Battery advances will come, but we should always try to optimize with the current technology and 10 cars with a 10th the battery of a Tesla would be better for the future.

      • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I do want to see more efficient, smaller EVs, but no one wants an EV that only gets 50 miles per charge. They aren’t worth producing from the manufacturer’s perspective.

      • Pika@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        If you are unable to find a charging station at some point halfway across the state you’re either being too picky, or blind. I live in the middle of nowhere Maine and I can still find at least one electric vehicle charger per major town. Hell there is three of them in the town next over and it’s not even considered one of our highly populated towns. I thought the same that you did until I actually looked up where charging stations are located I was pleasantly surprized

        • ThunderclapSasquatch@startrek.website
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          1 year ago

          I live in Wyoming, having been to Maine, yall have an amazing and beautiful state but your definition of bumfuck no where is lacking. I checked the EV map again the ENTIRE QUATER of the state I live in that doesn’t have a single charger is where my family lives. I down south near Colorado for reasons I don’t want to get into right now but I want to be able to actually visit my family without having to take a plane between the two airports in Wyoming.

          • Pika@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            yea looking at wyoming I can see there is defo a lack of EV stations, it looks like for southern wyoming the longest stretch is between rock springs and Lareme, but that’s mostly if you lack the ability to use super chargers. I can see how it would be a pain to use an EV in that case, doable but it would stretch it a little further than i would be comfortable with as well. That being said you would never catch me driving 3 hours one way to visit someone anyway lmao

        • ThunderclapSasquatch@startrek.website
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          1 year ago

          I live in Wyoming, people not from here have a hard time understanding how desolate it is here. If I were to switch to an EV I’d have to take a plane everytime I wanted to visit my elderly mother, who would send a cousin in her ancient f-250 to drive me around, because there isn’t a single electric charger in that QUARTER of the state

        • CoopaLoopa@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          Could be a student or military or live in an apartment.

          Not sure any of those establishments are going to be thrilled with you running an extension cable across the parking lot or sidewalk to charge your car.

          Also pretty sure they meant their family lives outside of the range of a single EV charge and there’s no charging infrastructure on the way. What would be an 8 hour drive to visit family for the holidays turns into a multi-day trip with a stay at a motel/hotel to wait for your car to charge.

      • dan1101@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Lighter vehicles should be able to have the same range as larger ones, just have to find the right battery/weight/range combination.

        • ThunderclapSasquatch@startrek.website
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          1 year ago

          Yeah the current weight/range/battery combo for me in my almost entirely rural state is an ICE vehicle as much as I like EVs they just can’t get me where I need to be with the current infrastructure. Unfortunately my attempts is also revoking its green energy tax stuff, got to love Republicans. But at least we got rare earth metals now, so that means nothing has to change! (God I love my state but hate the people running it)

      • Harvey656@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Without doxing myself, from my hometown the nearest charging station is 30 miles away, that’s not end of the world far its definitely feasible but its not good enough. Especially when there’s gas stations everywhere. Charging stations need to be in way more places outside cities before they become appealing to folks living outside built up areas.

        • ThunderclapSasquatch@startrek.website
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          1 year ago

          Nearest one to my hometown is about 3-4 hours out. I would have to take a plane and have a cousin come get me in her truck whenever I visited my family if I used an EV the tech has come a long way but the infrastructure just isn’t always there as much as I hate that

  • middlemanSI@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    That’s 3175 kg for non-free folk. My car has around 1600 kg. 7k pound car is a fat fat cow.

    • abhibeckert@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s the battery, and the support frame to carry the weight of the battery safely. Like it or not - cars are getting heavier.

      • freebee@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        It’s a big fat fucking truck or luxury suv with a battery. A normal sized electric car is a thing too, you know. Electrics will always need to be heavier than ice of same size and model, but that doesn’t mean it needs to weigh 3000kg. Car are growing heavier and bigger not just because of electrification, but because of growing fragile egos and growing fears in a vehicle arms race.

        • dgmib@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Trucks and SUVs are getting heavier to skirt emissions controls.

          In 2010 the Obama administration passed laws tightening emissions control requirements for new vehicles. But the laws were written to allow emissions as a factor of vehicle size, larger vehicles were allowed to have more emissions.

          Unfortunately, the plan backfired. Instead of reducing emissions, vehicle manufacturers just started making vehicles bigger.

          It isn’t primarily the fragile egos that are driving sales of these vehicular monstrosities. It’s corporate profits and greed. Manufacturers aren’t making smaller models because they don’t make as much money on them, not because there isn’t a market for them.

  • TengoHipo@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    We just need to not have these big ass trucks for the general public. You don’t need a ford 350 with rims jacked up to show you have money. You are a pavement princess.

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      “But I need it for my work!”

      You don’t even have a toolbox on it. If it was an actual work truck, it would be a pickup with the bed replaced with one of those toolbox beds. Or you’d have a sprinter van like the actual plumbers and carpenters around here.

  • phoneymouse@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This becomes a self-reinforcing cycle. If there are 7000lb passenger trucks on the highway around my compact car, I maybe start wanting to get a larger vehicle myself to protect myself from the idiots who drive them.

    • Eczpurt@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      There has to be some sort of incentive either for smaller cars or against larger cars. Currently you can go into a dealer, tell them you want the biggest baddest truck/SUV that they have, and buy it all while having a normal license.

      You’d only be paying a slight premium on whatever road or fuel tax if that while having the benefit of not getting destroyed in a car accident. As it stands, there is little reason to buy a larger vehicle unless you actually don’t like driving a car that big.

  • GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    My first car had a curb weight of 2400 lbs. It’s absurd how fucking huge these planet-destroying, environment destroying, life destroying monstrosities have become.

  • Simon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    Okay this makes no sense. What about semi trucks or anything commercial? Did we decide decades ago that they can just fuck off and die?

  • LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    that thumbnail photo looks a lot like the guardrail on lifeguard road La Jolla farms Blacks Beach overlook switchback trail

  • x0x7@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    If you want society to rely less on cars stop subsidizing roads.