• GreenBeard@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    How about just metering charging infrastructure and taxing by the kilowatt hr? Power consumed is directly proportional to the weight, distance, and rate of travel. A simple mandate that all home charging stations have to have a wireless or remote-readable meter attached, and all public fast-chargers are taxed by KWh. Easy, simple, and nearly frictionless.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      No, that doesn’t work. You can charge anywhere.

      If you watch that “Technology Connections” video that keeps going around Lemmy, you should not waste your money on a home charging station

      • technically you can charge at a standard outlet. It works for some people
      • I also have adapters for tool outlets, dryer outlets, rv outlets (a dryer outlet could charge as quickly as the charging stations where I work)

      A home charging station is just a convenience. A really nice convenience that I highly recommend, but unnecessary

      Power consumed is directly proportional to the weight, distance, and rate of travel

      And if we’re trying to be fair, that’s really not true either. There’s a wide range of efficiencies for different vehicles. On the extreme end, if Aptera succeeds, those drivers would pay nothing. More importantly, this also gives them another opportunity to charge unfairly to defend ICE vehicles

      Simple weight and miles, regardless of technology and efficiency, and recorded at annual inspection or purchase/sale - ideally also keep the gas tax to help pay for its impact on the environment

      • GreenBeard@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        As far as the variety of efficiencies, I don’t see that as a downside. That just incentivizes higher efficiency systems if you assume the median efficiency for tax purposes.

        That said you do make a valid point about non-standard charging set ups. I’m not entirely opposed to the odometer method, I just find most proposals for implementing it a barrier to adoption.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          It’s already illegal to modify the odometer and many states have annual safety inspections where they could record such things

          The strongest arguments against smreridinf the odometer are surveillance and safety react, but if you’re only recording it once a year or when sold, then you’re not losing privacy

          • GreenBeard@lemmy.ca
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            1 hour ago

            See, annual inspections make it to visible. You get the bill for your road taxes all in one hit when you take your car in for maintenance, people are going to go a) Lose their minds at the price tag, b) Hit up black market solutions to “fix” their numbers. Being illegal is only a deterrence for getting caught breaking the law.