The Dallas Morning News reports that Governor Greg Abbott signed into law the Texas gas tax that everyone anticipated passing this past weekend. The new regulation will come full circle on September 1, and organizations will face surprisingly costly assessments. After that date, anyone who purchases a fully electric vehicle, not a hybrid, will be required to pay an initial tax of $400 in addition to the usual taxes, followed by an annual tax of $200.
The objective of the expense, which passed the Texas House with consistent bipartisan support of 145-0, is to ensure electric vehicles are paying toward the public interstate asset the same way ICE vehicles do with the 20-penny gas charge. Even though the tax seems reasonable on paper, some have said that it is too expensive, even going so far as to call it a new obstacle to widespread adoption of EVs.
One thing to remember is that out of the 22 million enlisted vehicles on Texas streets, just a measly 200,000 of them are EVs. Only the last year saw the addition of 30,000 of those, but it will be a while before they can truly compete with ICEs. At that point, the state anticipates that this tax will contribute an additional $38 million annually to the fund, a substantial sum until you consider that ICE vehicles contribute $3.8 billion annually to the fund.
Despite the fact that the numbers are small, this might be one of the uncommon conditions where the public authority has gotten out before something turns into an issue. When the number of electric vehicles on Texas roads doubles, triples, or even quadruples in the next five years, people will be glad that EVs are contributing in full. However, is the offer fair? Is $200 too much, as we've discussed before? Or is it even insufficient?
In comparison to the $200 fee, a vehicle contributes $130 annually to the Texas gas tax, a significant savings. While discussing the charge, a few legislators proposed a layered framework, with lighter-weight electric vehicles paying just $100 a year, all things being equal. Obviously, the proposal was rejected, but the idea of actually taking into account how heavy some EVs can be and how they can affect our infrastructure has merit.
Take, for instance, the 9,000-pound Hummer EV pickup. Compared to vehicles like the Nissan Leaf, this vehicle's impact on the wear and tear on our infrastructure will be much greater. Our nation will soon face a reckoning when our vehicles become too heavy for parking lots and other structures, potentially resulting in their collapse, as the debate extends beyond roads.
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