That sounds good as a Harvester reservation holder. Still counts as a plug-in-hybrid and would save me ~$100/yr. Let's see how the language shakes out in the end though.
The $130 Federal EV Fee Explained and How It Compares to Gas Tax
The House wants EV owners paying $130 a year to the feds, and after running it against what gas drivers actually put into the Highway Trust Fund, the number is more defensible than the reaction. The real problem isn't the size of the fee, it's that they made it flat, so the person babying their...riviantrackr.com
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There's no reason they couldn't have mainstreamed that design a bit and sold a LOT of those. Instead, you put a HYDROGEN-electric powertrain in it that virtually nobody will be able to use. WTF?
If the price was right my son would have bought one in a heartbeat. He loves that car.
That’s not a very great way to look at it, as there’s still many people that want an EV. I already pay over $100+ extra on my registration for local EV tax, paying over $300 on registration a year this would bump that over $400 and while all of that plus one month of charging is still better than one month of gas with the miles I drive its not an insignificant amount of money being taken from my pocket, but for my partner who already pays an additional $50 for a hybrid, but gets gas once a year, and doesn’t run miles up like I do that starts to not feel as worth it
Yeah Buddy.
I mainly shared it because I know that the house of reps were getting bashed on here about taking more money from EV owners. Just was sharing it to show them how its as fair as fair can get.
From a federal perspective, the numbers mostly work, but for your local purposes, I don't know how they compare to the gas tax they're trying to replace. I drive my ICE sedan about 12k miles a year, and with NC's gas tax, that's about $246 that I'm paying to the state and another $110 to the feds. Going EV or plug-in hybrid here would definitely save me money on taxes as I'd be looking at $90/state and $50/federal. In the long term though, that's not sustainable for the roads as I'd be driving a notably heavier/larger vehicle for less than half of what my current car costs in gas taxes. Each state is different though, so I'll stay out of the politics there.
Overall, I think this is probably the best solution from the feds (though the dollar amount is a questionable). Taxing electricity would be a nightmare and tracking mileage would be very hard in states that don't have inspections or any oversight on such things. I guess you could self-report your mileage on your annual taxes, but I can't imagine all the ways that would go wrong. Taxing tires is hard as there are 80k-mile tires that are hard as a rock, or sportier compounds that only get get 15k miles out of a set.
Is it? The gas tax froze in the 90s and cars got more efficient, and applying a blanket tax (equivalent to a very large inefficient ICE) to EVs and hybrids regardless of mileage driven is “fair”? To me it’s still a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of a gas car, but it’s not “fair”, I have no issue paying to help maintain roads, but it also sounds like an attack towards EVs that will sound worse on the surface than it is and push people away from them, we’re if we unfreeze the gas’s tax now ICE looks worse and pushes more people away from ICE
The whole system is broken. We did the lease paperwork last month for the Lexus. The finance manager started in the service department as a tech (admirable) then they promoted him up to finance manager with no education in finance. So they trained him to fill out paperwork and push people into extras. And the whole time he talked about how good he was at his job. Was really annoying. At some point he started talking as though he were educating us which pissed off my wife who has her MBA and has been in finance for 30+ years. She shut him down immediately and 5 minutes later found a mistake-I was just sitting there laughing to myself. Sadly this time sales was great and the finance manager ruined the experience
I think it hurts more seeing it in one lump sum vs being spread out over fill-ups throughout the year. If you raised the federal gas tax 50%, I don't think most people would notice without being told. I mean, we're only talking $0.09 per gallon. I definitely think the federal gas tax should be raised though.
By the end of the year I will have driven 25k+ tax deductible miles, I still don’t have an issue paying for what I drive, one month of gas in the ICE is around $600-/+ unfortunately the easiest way I see to make it more fair is requiring an odometer reading at yearly registration but that changes how things work with needing an official reading before you can be told the cost, but most people don’t drive the amount I do. Still if looking purely at numbers most people will save more than enough with electric to afford the fee, but given it’s for what a frozen gas tax isn’t helping with it’s still unfair to those that only drive a few thousand miles a year
Not just the USA.
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VW-owned Scout Motors moving jobs from Novi to North Carolina
(From Automotive News)Volkswagen subsidiary Scout Motors Inc. is moving jobs from its Novi innovation center to a new headquarters in North Carolina, raising concern about the startup automaker’s long-term presence in Michigan.
The company confirmed that some jobs have shifted down South and others will follow gradually, but declined to provide details. A company spokesperson said Scout, which was awarded a $10 million performance-based grant from Michigan in 2023, plans to maintain a presence in the state.
“While we are establishing and growing our workforce in the Carolinas, we do plan to keep a presence in Michigan given the state’s deep automotive roots, continued investment in innovation, and ability to attract and train a talented workforce of automotive designers and engineers,” Lindsay Bago, head of communications, said in an email.
“Some roles are planned to relocate from our Innovation Center in Michigan to our Corporate Headquarters in North Carolina over time; however, the majority of our engineering and design work remains in the Metro Detroit area.”
Scout has more than 300 employees at its Novi innovation center, where it announced in December 2023 plans to invest $11 million and create 200 jobs on top of 44 existing employees. Michigan pledged $10 million toward that end and has disbursed nearly $6 million of it so far, Michigan Economic Development Corp. spokeswoman Danielle Emerson said.
Scout has created 200 jobs and invested $8.1 million as of March 16, according to the MEDC’s annual report.
While Scout has lived up to its job creation commitment, the company’s incentives agreement expires April 30 next year, at which point the company is no longer on the hook to maintain the jobs, according to the terms of its contract.
“We continue to believe Scout has a strong future in Michigan,” Emerson said in an email. “This also highlights the competitive landscape we face every day for good-paying, innovation-driven jobs, not just for new investment — but for companies that already call Michigan home.”
Scout is investing heavily down South. The company broke ground in early 2024 on a $2 billion assembly plant in Blythewood, S.C., where it plans to launch production of its electric vehicles in 2028, according to AutoForecast Solutions. Scout will make all-electric pickups and SUVs as well as an extended-range electric powertrain option.
In November, the company announced it would invest $207 million and create 1,200 jobs at a new headquarters in Charlotte, about an hour’s drive north of its assembly plant.
“Charlotte is the ideal home for Scout Motors — a place as dynamic as our people and brand, where heritage and pride meet progress and innovation,” President and CEO Scott Keogh said in a news release at the time. “With a thriving talent pool, world-class universities, and a deserved reputation as a launchpad for bold ideas, Charlotte offers the momentum we need to scale quickly and sustainably.”
Bago said there are about 60 employees working at an interim office in Charlotte. As far as its permanent location, the company will “begin upfitting the first office building later this year.”
Scout’s parent company, VW, has also been shrinking its presence in metro Detroit, where it is cutting 200 jobs and exiting its prominent 360,000-square-foot office in Auburn Hills for a nearby building less than a third the size. The downsizing is being subsidized by a $4 million grant, which officials said is needed to retain 909 jobs.
The shifts highlight the broader trend of Michigan auto jobs migrating south, an issue that policymakers have grappled with for years. The state’s corporate subsidy-fueled economic development policy has come under fire for its mixed results.
A company’s R&D and engineering jobs tend to gravitate to where its products are produced. That’s proved to be a challenge for Michigan, which has had little success luring mass auto assembly operations beyond the Detroit 3.
Despite this, auto startups such as Lucid Motors and Slate have recently planted engineering flags in Michigan while mass producing their vehicles elsewhere.
oof! McMaster should just stay in until Scout is up and running and pumping out cars. All these candidates are carbon copies of each other on both sides. Every state and federal government should get rid of everyone and start from scratch, all new senators, house, and presidents, governors, mayors you name it.
But also its not my state, i just want my Scout, and for them to succeed and not be shot down by stupid politics from either side.
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In South Carolina EVs cost more to register than my car hauler for vehicles.
Annoyingly my Volt counted as an EV for the tax credit despite being a hybrid. It was fine but now with no Tax Benefits of having an EV I simply run my Dealer Tag on my Model Y.
I'm sure there's others who also Register their vehicles under LLCs in different states (Montana Style).
If only SC would do Permanent Tags+Registration AND had not hideous License Plate options.
Really taxing vehicles by weight would be much better and they are already taxing Public Chargers similar to the Gas Tax.
Really makes me consider getting a Tesla Roadster to Permanent Plate it from Montana & not worry.
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