One state is considering a mileage-based EV tax – here’s why that’s a bad idea
Lawmakers in Vermont are gearing up for a mileage-based EV tax. There are better ways to raise funds for roads and infrastructure.
Mileage-based EV tax
Vermont as a state is pro-EV – it’s actively incentivizing more environmentally-friendly transportation options through Drive Electric Vermont. The state is busy installing EV chargers, and its first Tesla center was unanimously approved by the city council in South Burlington in December.
However, the state estimates that it will miss out on about $1 million in revenue in 2023 due to the uptake of EVs and hybrids, according to the VT Digger, as the gas tax helps fund road maintenance and improvements.
So Vermont state legislators are now considering a bill, H.479, that proposes a mileage-based tax for electric vehicle owners to make up for this lost revenue. The tax would be based on the number of miles driven by the vehicle rather than the amount of gasoline used.
This proposal was passed in the House on March 30, read for the first time in the Senate, and referred to the Committee on Transportation.
Lawmakers are roughly aiming for July 2025 to launch a mileage-based EV tax because that’s when the state aims for 15% of all new vehicles to be fully electric or plug-in hybrids.
Electrek’s Take
Is this really the best way to skin the cat? We don’t think so.
How do you separate out miles driven out of state versus in-state? For example, I live on the New Hampshire/Vermont border on the Vermont side. My husband drives an EV to New Hampshire every day to go to work. People cross borders in these small states all the time. How do you accurately measure the number of miles driven in-state to ensure that EV owners are not unfairly burdened by the tax? And a tracking device is not going to be popular.
Mileage-based taxes could also disproportionately impact low-income drivers, as they may not have the means to pay a large fee based on the number of miles they drive, which could create an unfair burden. And people drive a lot here, for work or otherwise, due to the fact that it’s rural.
How about perhaps shifting the entire transportation fund away from gas and diesel and figuring out a better way to raise needed funds?
Why not calculate the taxes based on vehicle weight? According to a GAO study, an 80,000-pound 18-wheeler does 9,600 times more damage to roads than a 4,000-pound passenger vehicle. This can be completed when the vehicle is registered.
Eighty percent of EV owners charge their cars at home. People pay tax on their electric bills; why can’t the state tap into that extra tax income through the utilities?
The US has some of the lowest gas taxes in the world. As of February 2023, Vermont’s total state tax on gasoline was 33 cents a gallon and 32 cents for diesel, according to the US Energy Information Administration. How about raising the gas tax so that switching to an EV is further incentivized?
But the proponents of these EV fees wouldn’t advocate for that, because these fees are pushed by the fossil fuel industry. These laws were not conceived of to fix a shortfall in revenue, but rather to target a competitor to the fossil fuel industry. And they’ve spread to many states with this disingenuous motivation.
Of course, state roads and infrastructure need tax revenue for upkeep and improvements. Sierra Club Vermont calls the mileage-based fees idea “regressive,” and we agree. The EV mileage tax idea has too many holes, so it doesn’t feel like the right way to do it – in Vermont or anywhere else.
What do you think about mileage-based EV tax? Let us know in the comments below.
Photo: State of Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development
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Kia’s electric SUVs are taking over. The EV3 is the best-selling retail EV in the UK this year, giving Kia its strongest sales start since it arrived 34 years ago. And it’s not just in the UK. Kia just had its best first quarter globally since it started selling cars in 1962.
Kia EV3 is the best-selling EV in the UK through March
In March, Kia sold a record nearly 20,000 vehicles in the UK, making it the fourth best-selling brand. It was also the second top-seller of electrified vehicles (EVs, PHEVs, and HEVs), accounting for over 55% of sales.
The EV3 remained the best-selling retail EV in the UK last month. Including the EV6, three-row EV9, and Niro EV, electric vehicles represented 21% of Kia’s UK sales in March.
Kia said the EV3 “started with a bang” in January, darting out as the UK’s most popular EV in retail sales. Through March, Kia’s electric SUV has held on to the crown. With the EV3 rolling out, Kia sold over 7,000 electric cars through March, nearly 50% more than in Q1 2024.
The EV3 was the best-selling retail EV in the UK in the first quarter and the fourth best-selling EV overall, including commercial vehicles.
Starting at £33,005 ($42,500), Kia said it’s the “brand’s most affordable EV yet.” It’s available with two battery packs, 58.3 kWh or 81.48 kWh, good for 430 km (270 miles) and 599 km (375 miles) of WLTP range, respectively.
With new EVs on the way, this could be just the start. Kia is launching several new EVs in the UK this year, including the EV4 sedan (and hatchback) and EV5 SUV. It also confirmed that the first PV5 electric vans will be delivered to customers by the end of the year.
Electrek’s Take
Globally, Kia sold a record 772,351 vehicles in the first quarter, its best since it started selling cars in 1962. With the new EV4, the brand’s first electric sedan and hatchback, launching this year, Kia looks to build on its momentum in 2025.
Kia has also made it very clear that it wants to be a global leader in the electric van market with its new Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV) business, starting with the PV5 later this year.
Earlier today, we learned Kia’s midsize electric SUV, the EV5, is the fourth best-selling EV in Australia through March, outselling every BYD vehicle (at least for now). The EV5 is rolling out to new markets this year, including Canada, the UK, South Korea, and Mexico. However, it will not arrive in the US.
For those in the US, there are still a few Kia EVs to look forward to. Kia is launching the EV4 globally, including in the US, later this year. Although no date has been set, Kia confirmed the EV3 is also coming. It’s expected to arrive in mid-2026.
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Environment
Podcast: Tesla’s disastrous deliveries, more Trump tariffs, EV delivery numbers, and more
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Tesla’s disastrous deliveries, more Trump tariffs, EV delivery numbers, and more.
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Charging your EV in freezing weather could soon become dramatically faster, thanks to a big breakthrough from the University of Michigan engineers.
Neil Dasgupta, U-M associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering and corresponding author of a study published in Joule, and his team have developed an innovative battery structure and coating that can boost lithium-ion EV battery charging speeds by a whopping 500%, even at frigid temperatures as low as 14F (-10C). “Charging an EV battery takes 30 to 40 minutes even for aggressive fast charging, and that time increases to over an hour in the winter,” Dasgupta explained. “This is the pain point we want to address.”
Freezing weather has traditionally been harsh on EV batteries because it slows down the movement of lithium ions, resulting in slower charging speeds and reduced battery life. Automakers have tried thickening battery electrodes to extend driving range, but this makes some of the lithium hard to access, making charging even slower.
Previously, Dasgupta’s group sped up battery charging using lasers to carve pathways around 40 microns in size into the graphite anode. This allowed lithium ions to reach deeper into the battery more quickly. However, cold-weather performance still lagged because a chemical layer formed on the electrodes, blocking the ions. Dasgupta compares this barrier to “trying to cut cold butter,” making charging inefficient.
To solve this, the team coated the battery with a thin, glassy material made of lithium borate-carbonate—only 20 nanometers thick—which prevented the problematic chemical layer from forming. Combined with the microscopic channels, the results were groundbreaking: the modified batteries retained 97% of their capacity even after 100 fast-charging cycles in freezing temperatures.
“We envision this approach as something that EV battery manufacturers could adopt without major changes to existing factories,” Dasgupta noted. “For the first time, we’ve shown a pathway to simultaneously achieve extreme fast charging at low temperatures, without sacrificing the energy density of the lithium-ion battery.”
This innovation could tackle one of the biggest concerns holding potential EV buyers back.
The new battery tech is moving closer to commercialization, supported by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization (MTRAC) Advanced Transportation Innovation Hub. The research devices were built at U-M’s Battery Lab and studied with help from the Michigan Center for Materials Characterization.
U-M Innovation Partnerships assisted the team in applying for patents, and Arbor Battery Innovations has licensed the technology for market deployment. Dasgupta and the University of Michigan hold financial stakes in Arbor Battery Innovations.
Read more: California now has nearly 50% more EV chargers than gas nozzles
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