Iowa EVs now pay two taxes where gas cars only pay one
Iowa is about to adopt an additional “electric fuel excise tax” on July 1, meaning EVs in the state will now pay “fuel” taxes two different ways, whereas gas cars only pay one – and both of these taxes are higher than what a gas car pays.
A large number of states have implemented misguided and excessive “EV fees” to “make up” for shortfalls in road budgets, with the theory that EVs are somehow skipping out on their fair share. Currently, in Iowa, gas taxes only pay for less than 40% of the state’s road budget, and the vast majority of road damage is done by trucks, not cars.
We’ve covered the reasons these fees are misguided many times before, not least of which because they are a cynical lobbying ploy by the oil industry to disadvantage an objectively better transportation option. But Iowa’s new effort takes the stupidity to the next level.
Iowa double-taxes EVs, and each one is higher than taxes on gas
Iowa’s new EV fuel excise tax, in effect starting July 1, will apply a 2.6 cent tax per kilowatt-hour of electricity dispensed into an EV battery.
Thankfully, the new tax doesn’t apply to residences. But anyone charging at a public or commercial station will now have to pay two taxes where a gas car driver only pays one when they go to a gas station. The other tax is the state’s $130/year registration fee for EVs, which was explicitly intended to replace gas taxes for EVs.
Not only do EVs have to pay twice as many taxes as gas cars do, but each of these taxes is higher than the tax for an equivalent gas car.
At $130/year, an EV is taxed at about the rate of the average 35mpg car, given Iowa’s average 15k miles driven per year. While 35mpg is more than the average gas vehicle, it’s far less than the average efficiency of an EV – most of which are rated at over 100 mpge.
So this one tax is already more than what an EV would pay if it used gas. But on top of that, the 2.6c/kWh is also more than the taxes on gasoline usage. At current average Iowa gas prices of $3.70/gal, the state tax of 30c/gal represents a tax of about 8%. But at average Iowa electricity prices of 14c/kWh, 2.6 cents is an 18% tax, more than double the percentage tax on gasoline.
Per mile, these taxes come out to about .8 cents for EVs and 1.2 cents for gas cars, but remember both that gas cars are taxed based on fuel use not miles (and EVs are much more efficient, so thus should pay much less tax), and that EVs are already paying a tax just for existing.
Finally, there’s even a third source of taxes that some EV drivers pay. Iowa has a “local option” sales tax for utility costs, which means in some parts of the state, electricity is already taxed by an additional 1%. This is a small tax, but it means that EV drivers are instead paying three taxes to the state of Iowa, whereas gasoline users only pay one.
This has nothing to do with road damage
Governments have attempted to justify these abusive taxes by claiming that EVs are causing road funding shortfalls that need to be filled. But Iowa’s EVs cause virtually none of the road damage in the state.
Iowa has 4,596,501 gas vehicles registered as of 2022, and as of April of 2022, had 9,400 EVs registered.
If these EVs drive the same amount as the average Iowa driver, that means they’ll pay about $1.1 million in EV fuel excise tax per year collectively. But Iowa’s Department of Transportation has a $4 billion budget, meaning this new tax will represent ~.027% of its total. At Iowa average road construction costs, this would pay for somewhere around 30 lane-miles of road construction. Iowa currently has a total 235,460 lane-miles of road.
Meanwhile, a fully-loaded semi truck does roughly 10,000 times more damage than an average passenger vehicle. These trucks are driven more miles, too, with an average of around 45k miles per year. So if a $130 tax is reasonable for an average 15k-mile/yr EV, then a $3,900,000 yearly tax should be reasonable for a truck that does 30,000 times as much damage. If one of those numbers seems high, then both of them should.
Besides, less than 40% of Iowa’s roads are paid for by gas taxes, with the majority coming from other tax sources – which EV owners already pay their fair share for.
If we want to argue that “fairness” in paying for road damage is what’s important, then all vehicles should pay an equivalent tax based on weight and mileage regardless of motive power (and additional taxes for the amount of pollution their operation causes as well).
Until then, this is not an issue of fairness – it’s an issue of wealthy fossil lobbyists trying to disadvantage a superior powertrain choice while its numbers are still small and there are few people to complain, with the goal of continuing to choke you to death with the effects of their product.
What’s actually costing Iowans more? Pollution
What actually does have drastic costs for Iowans is pollution. The IMF has estimated that fossil fuels cost the US $649 billion in health and environmental costs per year, and if we assume those costs are distributed evenly across the US population, that would mean Iowa loses about $6 billion due to fossil fuel pollution per year.
Much of that damage comes from automobile exhaust. Transportation is the largest-emitting sector in the US, and car exhaust is responsible for more smog-forming pollutants than any other source. We know that EVs can reverse those trends, and even a small amount of EVs can make areas healthier and that every electric car brings $10,000 in life-saving benefits.
And that doesn’t even account for the benefits of avoiding climate change, which will disproportionately affect the agriculture industry (Iowa’s most important industry) and where quick action could save the world tens of trillions of dollars.
But putting a dollar amount on those costs abstracts them and makes them feel less harmful. Those health costs aren’t being paid by your pocketbook, but by your lungs. It’s a shockingly big number, but it’s a number representing an even more shocking amount of misery foisted on you by the fossil fuel industry which has lobbied for these punitive taxes on its better competition.
The number obscures the misery of thousands or millions of Iowans with reduced quality of life, children whose possibilities will be limited by lifetime lung problems before they even get started with their lives, retirees who can’t enjoy their well-earned leisure due to visits to the doctor or being leashed to cumbersome medical devices, or the thousands per year whose lives are cut short from the poison we continue pumping into their lungs.
And with this law, Iowa is throwing its lot in with increasing the misery of its residents. Placing an abusive tax on a small number of those residents who’ve made a better choice and are being punished for it, making better choices less attractive, and harming its residents and its main industry in the process.
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File this under “wishful thinking” if you want, but a fresh trademark filing for the Buick Electra name could mean that the storied nameplate is set for a return to US shores.
GM Authority reports that Buick parent company General Motors has renewed its trademark for the Buick Electra name in the US in a filing from 09DEC2025 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and received an assigned serial number 99538079. The application carries a Goods and Services of, “Motor land vehicles, namely, automobiles.”
Electra a nameplate that holds a long history with the near-luxe Buick brand and has generally been believed to be one that’s especially relevant to Buick’s electrification strategy in the US. That’s a notion that seems especially true when you consider the following two facts:
- the Buick Electra nameplate is already featured on a number of hugely successful GM products being sold in the ultra-competitive Chinese market
- 2027 is the fortieth anniversary of the Buick Grand National, and GM’s marketers are way too smart to let that moment slide
It’s worth noting, of course, that this most recent renewal for the Buick Electra trademark is a long, long way from a confirmation of a new all-electric Buick for the US market and even further from a confirmation that we’re getting the hot, sexy Electra GM sells in China. If anything, it’s likely just a matter of course legal thing that GM needs to protect its IP in China while, at the same time, preventing some kind of disastrous Sierra Mist scenario from playing out at home (which– yeah, I get that it’s not true, but you got the idea).
That said, I want to believe.
Electrek’s Take
I’m a huge fan of GM, GM’s EVs, and the way Mary Barra has managed the General over the past several years. I also think a big, sexy sedan is sorely missing from GM’s lineup, and the fast, flashy electric sedan formula might play better at the Buick store than at the Cadillac brand.
Combine that with an overwhelming desire to see a new-age Buick Grand National parked in my garage next Christmas and you can see that I’m not to be trusted. So, what say you? Head on down to the comments and let us know what you think of an American Electra revival just in time for the 2027 model year.
SOURCE | IMAGES: GM Authority; GM.
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Heavy equipment giants Caterpillar have signed an agreement with Vale that will see the company dramatically expand its fleet of autonomous haul trucks deployed at iron ore operations in the Carajás region of Brazil over the next three years.
Vale’s Northern System mining operation currently has 14 CAT, 320-ton autonomous haul trucks in service. With this new deal, sold by Caterpillar’s Brazilian dealer, Sotreq, the autonomous haul truck fleet will expand to some ninety (!) of the massive, self-driving trucks by 2028. The big yellow trucks will be operated by CAT®, MineStar™ Command for hauling, and ship with a payload capacity of between 240 to an almost unimaginable 400 (!!) tons.
“We’re proud to introduce Cat Command for hauling at Vale’s Carajás site,” says Marc Cameron, Senior Vice President at Caterpillar. “By equipping Vale’s haul trucks with our autonomous technology, we will be delivering scalable solutions that meet their needs across a mixed fleet.”
CAT says this new deal represents, “a transformational leap,” citing the fact that autonomous trucks remove workers from hazardous areas and enable safer and more inclusive environments for mine employees – and more efficient operations for Vale.
That fact is backed by results from other Vale operations that have deployed large numbers of autonomous vehicles, which saw gains of up to 15% in operational performance and a 7.5% reduction in fuel use (more with electric drive), contributing to the reduction of the company’s carbon emissions. And, because this is end-stage capitalism 2025, they’re crediting AI for discovering those efficiencies.
“By integrating autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, and advanced data analysis, we are modernizing our mining operations in the Northern Corridor, becoming a global benchmark in smart mining, promoting the transformation of the industry, and connecting us to international best practices,” says Rafael Bittar, Vale Vice President, Technical.
The trucks will be delivered over the next three years, and are expected to be in full operation and up to speed by 2030.
Electrek’s Take
As I’ve said before, EVs and mining to together like peanut butter and jelly. In confined spaces, the carbon emissions and ear-splitting noise made by conventional, ICE-powered mining equipment can create dangerous circumstances that can lead to serious injuries (or worse), and that’s just going to make it even harder for a mining operation to keep people working and minerals coming out of the ground.
By working with companies like Caterpillar to prove that forward-looking electric equipment can do the job as well as well as (if not better than) their internal combustion counterparts, Vale will go a long way towards converting what’s left of the ICE faithful.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Vale, Caterpillar.
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Electric medium-duty startups Motive and Workhorse have logged millions of miles across their customer fleets — and by joining forces, they’re out to prove, once and for all, that electric vehicles can get the job done.
Following shareholder votes last month, Ohio-based Workhorse and San Francisco-based Motive are merging to form one of the largest commercial electric vehicle and last-mile delivery telematics solutions companies in the industry.
The all-stock transaction, announced last week, values the combined company at approximately $105 million and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025, subject to Workhorse shareholder approval.
Under the terms of the agreement, Motiv’s controlling investor will become the majority owner with approximately 62.5% of the combined company, while Workhorse shareholders will maintain a significant equity stake of approximately 26.5%.
The move is intended to combine Workhorse’ manufacturing capabilities and nationwide dealer network with Motiv’s proven product portfolio and existing fleet relationships to serve the growing $23 billion medium-duty truck segment with a full range of Class 4-6 electric vehicles that plays to the strengths of both companies while, at the same time, proving them with economies of scale they’ll need to survive the next wave of fake “the EV market is dead” headlines.
“Bringing together two leading OEMs in the medium-duty space strengthens our ability to reduce the cost of electric trucks and make the total cost of ownership even more compelling,” said Scott Griffith, CEO of Motiv, who will lead the combined company. “We believe this is a coming-of-age moment — not just for Motiv and Workhorse, but for the industry as a whole.”
The companies anticipate a minimum of $20 million in cost synergies by the end of 2026 through reductions in redundant R&D, G&A, and facility costs (and, of course, the associated layoffs).
Workhorse’s Union City facility has the capacity to eventually produce up to 5,000 trucks per year — a significant manufacturing scale for the merged operation and light years ahead of what Motiv’s existing facilities can crank out.
“This transaction represents a significant milestone for Workhorse, our customers, our stakeholders and our shareholders,” Rick Dauch, CEO of Workhorse and advisor to the new, combined company told FreightWaves. “We believe Motiv is the right partner to support the advancement of our combined product roadmap and capture new growth opportunities.”
The new, combined electric box van company will being life with 10 of the largest medium-duty fleets in North America as existing customers, and hopes to expand their line of offerings into the electric bus and RV markets in the years to come.
Electrek’s Take
Workhorse and Motive can spin this merger however they like — but this move is as much about survival in the new, incentive-lite era of Trump 2 than it is about anything else. That doesn’t mean it’s not a smart move, as each of the parts of this new whole has eliminated a very strong competitor while, at the same time, gaining all at least some of their best features.
As cynical as I am about corporate consolidation and layoffs (especially during the holidays), I can’t help but think this could be a winning move.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Workhorse; via FreightWaves.
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