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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While much of the Western world is still figuring out how to get more people on electric bikes, China just flipped a switch, and the results are staggering. Thanks to a generous nationwide trade-in program rolled out around six months ago, China has seen an explosive surge in electric bicycle sales, with over 8.47 million new e-bikes hitting the road in the first half of 2025 alone.
The program, which offers subsidies to riders who trade in their old, often outdated electric bikes for newer, safer, and more efficient models, has sparked a new e-bike sale boom in a country already dominated by e-bike travel. In major provinces like Jiangsu, Hebei, and Zhejiang, over one million new e-bikes were sold in each region in just six months. That’s a tidal wave of e-bike sales.
The incentives vary depending on location and the model being traded in, but for many consumers, the subsidies cover a substantial portion of a new e-bike’s price – enough to turn a “maybe next year” purchase into a “right now” upgrade. And these aren’t just budget bikes either. The program has driven demand for higher-quality models with better batteries, safer braking systems, and more reliable electronics, accelerating both adoption and innovation across the industry.
The move has proven successful in replacing the millions of older models with lower-quality lithium-ion batteries that had posed safety risks around the country. Instead, China has pushed for higher-quality lithium-ion batteries, a return to a newer generation of higher-performance AGM batteries, and even interesting new sodium-ion battery options.
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Most e-bikes in China look more like what we’d consider seated scooters
According to China’s Ministry of Commerce, more than 8.4 million consumers have participated in the e-bike trade-in program so far, contributing to a sales increase of 643.5% year-over-year and more than doubling sales month-over-month. Meanwhile, production of new electric bicycles rose by nearly 28%, as manufacturers scrambled to meet demand. The sales boosts have already been seen in the financial reports of major industry players like NIU.
And it’s not just the big players benefiting – over 82,000 small independent e-bike dealers reported average sales increases of ¥302,000 (around US $42,000), giving a serious boost to local economies.
What’s particularly striking here is how fast this happened. The program was officially launched late last year as part of a broader effort to stimulate domestic consumption and phase out outdated vehicles and appliances. But while most analysts expected gradual growth, the e-bike sector responded much more quickly. In less than a year, the trade-in subsidies have reshaped the electric bicycle market, creating a consumer-driven boom that shows no signs of slowing.
For those of us watching from outside China, it’s hard not to wonder what might happen if other countries tried something similar. While most families in Chinese cities already own an electric bike and thus see this as an opportunity to trade it in for a newer model, Western countries like the US are still figuring out how to stimulate commuters into buying their first e-bike.
It’s too soon to know exactly how long the boom will last or whether the momentum will carry into 2026 and beyond. We’ve seen bicycle industry bubbles grow and burst before. But one thing’s clear: with the right incentives, even modest ones, it’s possible to ignite real, large-scale change. China just proved it with nearly 8.5 million new e-bikes to show for it.
And if you’re wondering what it looks like when a country takes electric micromobility seriously, this is it.
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Today was the official start of racing at the Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix 2025! There was a tremendous energy (and heat) on the ground at NCM Motorsports Park as nearly a dozen teams took to the track. Currently, as of writing, Stanford is ranked #1 in the SOV (Single-Occupant Vehicle) class with 68 registered laps. However, the fastest lap so far belongs to UC Berkeley, which clocked a 4:45 on the 3.15-mile track. That’s an average speed of just under 40 mph on nothing but solar energy. Not bad!
In the MOV (Multi-Occupant Vehicle) class, Polytechnique Montréal is narrowly ahead of Appalachian State by just 4 laps. At last year’s formula sun race, Polytechnique Montréal took first place overall in this class, and the team hopes to repeat that success. It’s still too early for prediction though, and anything can happen between now and the final day of racing on Saturday.
Congrats to the teams that made it on track today. We look forward to seeing even more out there tomorrow. In the meantime, here are some shots from today via the event’s wonderful photographer Cora Kennedy.
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The numbers are in and they are all bad for Tesla fans – the company sold just 5,000 Cybertruck models in Q4 of 2025, and built some 30% more “other” vehicles than it delivered. It just gets worse and worse, on today’s tension-building episode of Quick Charge!
We’ve also got day 1 coverage of the 2025 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix, reports that the Tesla Optimus program is in chaos after its chief engineer jumps ship, and a look ahead at the fresh new Hyundai IONIQ 2 set to bow early next year, thanks to some battery specs from the Kia EV2.
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