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I think that person was talking about the "Hummer loophole". It was pretty awesome while it lasted.
Until a few years ago, you could write off an entire SUV as a business expense as long as it was over 6000 pounds. Most large SUVs were over 6000 lbs. They were considered farm vehicles, going back to a time when not many people drove SUVs. But some time in the last 5 or 10 years, they did away with it. I think you can still write off $25K but not the whole vehicle anymore.
If you have a business you can write off a vehicle used for it as an expense anyway irregardless of the GVW.
The argument that we need to retard market penetration of high efficient vehicles because these cars don't pay for road upkeep via participation in fuel tax is ... retarded. No one has once talked about the fringe benefit with less greenhouse gas emission, tailpipe pollution, fossil fuel consumption, dependency on oil, etc. that got these cars started in the first place.
If the funding strategy to maintain roads is flawed, then the gov't should fix that... and not by slapping a new and arbitrary tax on specific classes of vehicles.
The lost revenue is far dwarfed from what we are wasting fighting wars to protect our "interests" in the Middle East.
Originally Posted by Listener2307 Electric cars are going to die.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eaton53
The "USA" is not the world.
Automakers will either keep up with this technology or they can forget about selling cars globally.
If the largest states also say "there will be EVs", then there will be EVs here as well.
Any automaker that doesn't have a significant presence in at least two of the three big markets (USA, EU & China) will be in danger of getting swallowed up by one that is.
Here's what the CEO of Fiat Chrysler has to say about it:
Quote:
"I hope you don't buy it because every time I sell one it costs me $14,000," he said to the audience at the Brookings Institution about the 500e. "I'm honest enough to tell you that."
The gasoline-powered Fiat 500 starts at almost $17,300 including delivery charges, while the 500e starts at $32,650 before federal tax credits. Consumers are not willing to pay a price that covers Fiat's costs so it loses money on the 500e. Fiat Chrysler CEO: Please don't buy Fiat 500e electric car | Reuters
I stand by my observation that manufacturers cannot build it for a price that consumers will pay. Taxpayers world wide are subsidizing the whole thing.
States do say, "There will be EVs". States don't tell you that you will be paying for my EV because EV cannot be manufactured at a price I am willing to pay.
EVs are not the wave of the future. They are a symptom of bureaucratic bungling.
No one said we have to retard the market, just change the system to they pay their share. That is how our society works conceptually, we each pay a fair share of the cost of maintaining the things we all use. For roads, EVs are unbalancing the method that was used to determine a fair share. Now they need something else. could be registration fees, a tax on tires, they could tax electricity but that would force people using electricity for HVAC to pay road repair taxes. They could make all roads toll roads.
The method that makes the most sense is to make everyone pay a tax based on miles driven. That could be modified by the weight of the vehicle. The problem with this system is you will ahve a lot of people come to the end of the year, tally up miles driven and have no money to pay for it. The beauty of using gas tax is it is paid in small increments and you have to pay the tax if you want your car to go. Unfortunately, EVs eliminate that option. One solution woudl be to have separate meters for EVs and do not allow EVs to charge off household electrical systems and then charge a tax on the electricity run through those separate meters. Seems a bit unwieldy though. Every home would have to have a separate meter system set up for the car, and the cars would have to be made so they could not charge off a household system.
Another solution would be to increase the State sales tax and just let everyone pay for the roads regardless of whether or how much they use them.
States are experimenting with different approaches now. The easiest method seems to be a registration upcharge on EVs to offset the money they are not paying for gas tax
States do say, "There will be EVs". States don't tell you that you will be paying for my EV because EV cannot be manufactured at a price I am willing to pay.
EVs are not the wave of the future. They are a symptom of bureaucratic bungling.
Right on says it all there...There are ways to improve efficiency but at what cost...And how new and not long-term tested...
I don't know about you but I am not inclined to drop big bunches of cash/financing 30k+ for technology we may find major flaws in 2-5 years and then you are left in the dust and with a vehicle worth little to nothing...I'm not taking that risk...Note these are generalizations...
Right on says it all there...There are ways to improve efficiency but at what cost...And how new and not long-term tested...
I don't know about you but I am not inclined to drop big bunches of cash/financing 30k+ for technology we may find major flaws in 2-5 years and then you are left in the dust and with a vehicle worth little to nothing...I'm not taking that risk...Note these are generalizations...
Don't. I don't know anyone of any account that is trying to force you to. There are still plenty of options available to you.
Here's what the CEO of Fiat Chrysler has to say about it:
Quote:
"I hope you don't buy it because every time I sell one it costs me $14,000," he said to the audience at the Brookings Institution about the 500e. "I'm honest enough to tell you that."
The players that are taking EVs seriously aren't saying that.
Sergio just running around begging for someone to take over FCA and give him a golden parachute, anyway.
He's not gonna be around long enough to see any of this through.
Quote:
Originally Posted by trckn4life
I don't know about you but I am not inclined to drop big bunches of cash/financing 30k+ for technology we may find major flaws in 2-5 years and then you are left in the dust and with a vehicle worth little to nothing...I'm not taking that risk...Note these are generalizations...
I don't see why a Volt wouldn't work perfectly well many years from now. That tech is no longer new.
Here's a guy with almost 400K miles on his. No battery degradation and only one repair.
I am looking at getting a used Volt soon. I was a little concerned about battery replacement, but a friend who works for GM told me they have a 10 (I think ) year warranty and, so far, GM has only had to replace 2 batteries.
So what about a 3500 lb economy car getting 40 mpg, are you saying that they should get taxed more, too as they aren't paying their fair share of taxes?
Generally speaking the fuel tax is one of the fairer taxes we have, the more weight a vehicle is the more damage it does to the road. Heavier vehicles typically use more fuel. That's not always the case, if you have a muscle car that eats gas you are paying a lot. On the other hand electric, natural gas or other vehicles using alternative fuels throw a monkey wrench into the works because they are paying $0.
If you wanted to do this fairly you'd implement a formula based on per miles driven and the weight of the vehicle. I'd support this as long as GPS or something else that is highly invasive to your privacy is not used to track these miles. For example you'd have to set up some kind of budget and credit or billing done during inspection.
As a side note A 8000 pound vehicle does more damage than two 4000 pound vehicles so the tax would rise exponentially as the weight increases. The 8000 pound vehicle would need to pay more than the two 4000 pound vehicles combined.
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