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I think the 18.3c needs to increase too if we're already having to shift money around to cover things.  And we're not even covering everything with that. The state of bridges here in PA is horrible. They just reduced traffic on a bridge here because they found serious defects. It's a major interstate artery through the city.

I'm glad this breakdown was in the article, because this was the first thing I thought of. I didn't think I was paying anywhere close to $250/yr worth of 18.3c gasoline tax, which I'm not, according to those numbers.  I can understand the EV tax being slightly higher due to the pretty significant weight different, but this is too much. This proposed tax should probably be cut in half, maybe more, IMO. $100/yr doesn't seem unreasonable. 

Tariff Tuesday is the day where we cover how President Trump’s tariffs, if fully enacted, will impact the auto industry, increase costs, and limit consumer choice.  We started this series on April 15, Tax Day for those in the United States, because Trump’s tariffs amount to one of the largest single increases in taxes on the American People. The tariffs which, if fully implemented, will raise $1.4 trillion in revenue, and increase costs per household between $1,900 to $7,600 per year. Manufacturers are shuffling their decks Since the Trump tariffs have gone into place, automobile manufacturers have been rushing to shift production to avoid tariffs and reciprocal tariffs imposed by other countries.  This has lead to some breathless and inaccurate or incomplete headlines like: Mazda set to stop U.S. production on this popular model. Here’s what that means for you - Daily Dot First major auto manufacturer (Mazda) pulls plug on US production due to tariffs - MSN Massive blow to Trump as Japanese car giant (Subaru) moves manufacturing OUT of US in tariff twist - Daily Mail Trump tariffs cost U.S. millions as Subaru shifts supply to Japan - MSN While some of the above articles explain the truth in the body of the stories, in these days of click-bait headlines, it is important that we don't bury the lead. For both Mazda and Subaru, the production shifts are for vehicles built in the U.S. and bound for Canada.  Because of Trump's tariffs on imported vehicles, Canada placed a reciprocal tariff on vehicles imported from the U.S.  Going forward, Subarus sold in Canada will have a "Made in Japan" sticker on them. Prior to Trump's election, the popular Forrester model was slated start production in Indiana taking over allocation from the outgoing Subaru Outback. The new Subaru Outback Crossover is slated to be built in Japan, however that may change with the tariffs in place.  Unlike the domestic manufacturers, Subaru does not have multiple plants in the U.S. to move overseas production to and their Lafayette IN plant.  The Subaru CrossTrek entered into production in the U.S. in 2023, only certain trimlines are made here with the base and premium trims still built in Japan.  It is likely that Subaru will shift all US Crosstrek production to Indiana. Subaru's sports car, the Subaru BR-Z, is unlikely to survive the tariff regime as we explained in our Sports Cars are Dead piece. The Mazda CX-50 is the only Mazda model offered for sale in the U.S. that is built in the U.S in Huntsville, Alabama.  The Huntsville plant is a joint venture with Toyota who builds the Corolla Cross there as well. Mazda announced a pause in production of the CX-50 after the tariffs went into affect to regroup.  The plant had been supplying roughly 11,000 CX-50s to the Canadian market.  It is likely that Canadian CX-50s will be imported from China in future, though there has been no official word on that from Mazda yet. In a statement, Mazda says that overall production of the CX-50 at Huntsville should remain the same, meaning that factory's output will be entirely for the U.S. market.   It is likely that Mazda expects sales of the CX-5, a roughly similar sized crossover at a lower price and imported from Japan, will fall as the tariffs push the price above the CX-50's price.  It's also possible that Mazda sees opportunity for increased sales of the CX-50 being one of the few small crossovers built in the US. Audi, which paused all imports in early April and has no production in the U.S., is looking to move production of certain models to Volkswagen's Chattanooga TN plant. The Audi Q4 eTron is built on the same platform as the Volkswagen ID.4 built in Chattanooga while the next version of the Audi Q8 eTron could join production of the new Scout truck and SUV at that brand's new plant in South Carolina. The larger brands like Toyota, GM, and Ford have more flexibility to move production around.  GM in particular is looking to restructure its supply lines on trucks if the tariffs remain permanent, however, that does not necessarily mean a return to US production if they can prove enough of their sourced parts come from the U.S. Playing the cards in their hand Across the board, manufacturers are digging into their supply chains to tag parts made in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. In the new tariff requirements there is an exemption for raw materials and parts sourced from the U.S. in vehicles that have their final assembly in Mexico or Canada. Even with the supply-chain turmoil of the Covid-19 years, manufacturers do not have their parts content sourcing mapped to the raw material level. However, in order to qualify for that exemption, the vehicle must have 75-percent or more of its content sourced from North America. Calculating those savings correctly could make or break a model. According to The Peterson Institute for International Economics, Mexican built vehicles already have an average of 40-percent to as high as 50-percent U.S. content. (Automotive News - Subscription Required).  Previously, an engine assembled in Mexico would be tariff free as long as some of the parts were made in the U.S.  Now, manufacturers have to calculate which parts come from where, where were the raw materials sourced, and how much value was added in a particular country in order to calculate the tax. Unfortunately, even those calculations cost time and money manufacturers will pass an increase cost to consumers without an increase in value. Gotta know when to fold'em One of the many reasons cited by Trump for imposing these tariffs is to correct what he sees as an unfair trade imbalance between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.  Setting aside the fact that Canada has the same population size as the State of California and as such there would never be balanced trade between the U.S. and Canada, the unintended consequences are the reactions by auto manufacturers are making the trade imbalance worse with at least roughly 40,000 fewer U.S. built vehicles being exported to Canada and the remainder scrambling to prove their content sources to avoid the Trump tariffs and leave production in Mexico or Canada.  Any trade imbalance is not going to be fixed by Audi moving a few low volume products to existing U.S. factories.  This works out to a net loss for the American consumer. Read more Tariff Tuesday articles below: Tariff Tuesday - Big Trouble in Little Crossovers Tariff Tuesday - Buick Killing it in China; Killed in the U.S. Tariff Tuesday - Sports Cars are Dead View full article

FYI - Using this story and my thoughts above, I wrote my House and Senate representatives on this and this is what I sent them:   Hello Suzan, Patty, Maria, Sam Graves, Republican for Montana and head of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is proposing a $250 annual charge for electric vehicles as part of an effort to shore up funding for the national highway system and other transportation projects. Graves stated that with the increase in electric, hybrid and just overall efficiency in internal combustion automobiles that the federal tax collected per mile traveled has dropped, making it a challenge to keep the Federal Highway Administration funded. With the new fees, Republicans hope to raise $50 billion in new funding over the next 10 years. The additional money would go to pay for highway repairs and additional funding for air traffic control. Republicans point out that since 2008, more than $275 billion has been shifted from the general fund to pay for road repairs.  The federal government has not raised fuel taxes, currently 18.3 cents per gallon, since October of 1993. The latest proposed fee schedule would be $250 per electric vehicle per year and $100 per hybrid-vehicle per year. An earlier proposal had the electric vehicle fee at $200 per year and also included a $20 per year fee for gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles.  The Federal fee would be on top of any state fees imposed. Many states have adopted EV fees to replace the loss in gas tax revenue at the local level. The federal fees are tied to inflation and would be recalculated each year and grow over time. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has pointed out that the proposed $250 fee would require the average EV owner to pay the equivalent 1366 gallons gas tax while hybrid owners would pay roughly the equivalent of 547 gallons of fuel tax on top of paying 18.3 cents at the pump. For an EV owner, they would be paying as much tax as someone driving 15,000 miles per year in an 11 mpg vehicle. The average amount of gas used by non-hybrid gasoline vehicles is roughly 489 gallons per year. I do not mind paying an equal share for my EV on the roads. Yet if they are going to charge me $250 then it is time to raise the gas tax equal to what Hybrid and EVs must pay. ICE = 489 gallons of gas X .183 cents per gallon = $89.49 cents per year based on the Governments only numbers. If they are to charge EVs $250, then they need to raise the Federal gas tax to .511 cents per gallon for equality and tie it into inflation so that gas tax goes up just as the Hybrid / EV tax goes up. With having to pull from the General fund $275 Billion to support the Federal Highway Administration, I find it a little odd that the estimated $50 Billion over 10 years really would make a difference compared to increasing the Federal Gas tax having everyone share in the responsibility to fund our inner state highway system. I look forward to hearing from you, Sincerely, G. David Felt   FYI 2024 according to statista.com, 134.55 billion gallons of gas were sold for the year. At .183 cents federal gas tax, that was $24,622,650,000 billion dollars collected in gas tax. At .511 center federal gas tax, that would have been $68,755,050,000 Billion collected in gas tax in addition to the Hybrid and EV fee that would be collected for our inner-state highway system.  

That is so true, all the shopping malls here have major charging areas that are free to the shoppers, but then pretty much anyone can pull in and plug in for an L2 charge. Most city government locations around here have free L2 chargers and Shell has many Volta free L2 charging at various tourist spots around Washington. Major work campuses have free L2 charging like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Boeing, Paccar, to name just a few.  Fast charging locations are growing as Tesla has signed with the Kroger / QFC / Fred Meyers locations for major charging stations and EVgo / ChargePoint / Electrify America have signed on with Walmart / Safeway / Albertson for stations in their parking lots. Costco has signed on with a private Seattle company to install fast chargers for a fee on their lots. So lots of changes coming for sure. Be interesting to see when the Auto Industry start up gets more places open other than the first one they did on the East coast.