this post was submitted on 20 May 2026
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218
Congress Wants You To Pay $130 A Year Just To Drive An Electric Car (insideevs.com)
submitted 13 hours ago by sanitation@lemmy.radio to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] pingu@piefed.europe.pub 5 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

Damage to the road scales with axle load using a fourth power. Yes a fourth power. So an average truck does roughly 3000x more damage to road surfaces than an average EV.

Yet, weather influences account for the majority of road wear, so the weight of cars really does not matter at all.

I'm aware that vehicle weight is the mechanism to tax cars in many countries, but within groups this makes little sense if it is to compensate for road wear. Whether its fair to exempt EVs from road taxes is a different story, and depends on other externalities and the type of travel behaviour a government wants to promote.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law

[–] Entertainmeonly@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

Playing devils advocate the average weight of an ev is roughly a 1000lbs more than an equivalent ice car.

[–] UnpledgedCatnapTipper@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

My Bolt EV weighs like 3600 pounds, about 400 pounds more than my old ICE Honda Accord. Maybe we should tax vehicles based on manufacturer spec curb weight. That might push demand for smaller, lighter, more efficient cars.

[–] Entertainmeonly@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 38 minutes ago

I genuinely agree with this. It would help curb the push for monster trucks with less veiw than abram tanks.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 hours ago

Only in the US where people demand stupid battery packs because of range anxiety because they can't do math.

[–] pingu@piefed.europe.pub 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

The weight of an average truck is roughly 80.000lbs more. Now add a power of 4 to that.

[–] Entertainmeonly@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 11 hours ago

Commercial vehicle taxes are already scaled by weight and milage.