Oregon electric vehicle mileage charge moves forward

[fordfocuselectric]

Governments have had a problem with people running their diesel engined vehicles on vegetable oil and other bio fuels for quite some time - because of the lost revenue that vehicle owners pay when they purchase diesel fuel or gasoline. These taxes go towards maintaining the roadways.

Now with the coming surge of electric vehicles on the road, how will the government get this money? The Ford Focus Electric can be charged at home, and then is driven on public roadways maintained by gas taxes that non-electric vehicle owners pay every time they stop at the pumps. Electric Vehicle owners argue that's another benefit of owning an electric vehicle, but as less people pay the gas tax, the taxes would have to rise, which would inevitably push more people faster towards electric vehicles like the Ford Focus EV.

Some day in the not so distant future all vehicles on the roads might be electric, which would mean there would be $0 taxes coming in from gasoline sales resulting in poorly maintained roadways.

There is a bill now in the Oregon Legislature that would tax electric vehicle owners for each mile they drove on Oregon roads. The current gasoline tax is $0.30 per gallon. The bill passed the House Transportation and Economic Development Committee Monday. A tax would charge either registered owners or lessees of electric cars $0.0143 (1.43 cents) per mile. It applies to all electric vehicles and hybrid plug-in vehicles built in 2014 or later, giving a free pass to early adopters.

Are other states to follow suit? Is this tax enough to matter to someone considering buying a Ford Focus Electric?

The 1.43 cents per mile is the equivalent to vehicles that get 21 MPG, which Oregon says is the average. It sounds to me like punishment to someone driving a fuel efficient vehicle like the Ford Focus EV! I can see that gas tax was an easy way to collect the tax, impossible to avoid, and would gather more tax from vehicles that were larger and used more fuel and damaged roads more quickly/easily. However, to charge an electric vehicle owner at the rate of 21MPG sounds pretty sad. If they move towards it, I would think they need to pull the tax off gasoline completely and go towards a per mile charge based on the type of vehicle being driven.

http://www.sustainablebusinessorego...4/oregon-electric-vehicle-mileage-charge.html

 

[johnd]

This is a dangerous move - once the government starts down this road, there's no going back.

Isn't there a road use tax in Europe somewhere? I think London might have something that charges users based on the distance they drive their vehicle each month?

This would also take an incredible amount of time and energy for the government to start charging vehicle based on use. And you can't just charge Electric Vehicle owners - I think you have to charge all vehicles based on distance driven. Get rid of the gas tax, and charge everyone by distance driven.

Otherwise, you're actually penalizing owners of the Ford Focus Electric and other electric vehicles by charging them based on the average mileage of 23 MPG.

Set a price per mile for passengers vehicles, light trucks, commercial trucks, motorcycles, etc.

 

[evluv]

I don't know what happened, but Oregon really seems to be in the news with the upcoming Ford Focus Electric. I thought California was the electric vehicle hot spot, but Oregon is holding it's own!

Last week Ford named Portland among it's top 25 electric vehicle ready cities.
"Portland is most aggressive in its actions and what other cities are doing is replicating what Portland is doing," Tinskey said.

Ford is working closely with Portland General Electric, and have signed a memorandum of understanding.