Fair’s fair..It’s easy for a pick-up truck guy like me to dump on Tesla owners for driving their fancy EVs and pointing their woke fingers for supposedly saving the planet. After all, my left-lib sister is one of them..I’m forever bombarded with tall tales of what a quiet ride it is, how it practically drives itself up the QEII while she reads a book and can go from zero to 60 in two seconds flat..She bought it when she was living in Toronto and received lavish subsidies from both the provincial and federal governments to buy it right off the showroom floor. Ontario was previously offering $14,000 to buy the car and another $1,000 for the charger, on top of the $5,000 offered from the federal government..Whenever I ask how much she paid, I just get a wink and and one of those ‘gotcha’ smiles..More than that, I get grilled — literally and figuratively — in the face on how cheap it is to operate. Especially how cheap it is to operate..Sure, it’s a bit of an inconvenience to keep charged, but she times it with her latte breaks at the local Starbucks to take advantage of the local public — meaning ‘free’ — chargers while she commiserates with her equally frugal social crowd who line up for their 20 minutes of disruption to their daily routines..So what if it takes 20 hours to get to the Left Coast? When it only costs the price of a cup of joe at Timmies, you can take as long as you like or your holiday allotment allows..The last time I drove down to Victoria in the fall, I was paying close to $2 per litre. Even in my Honda Ridgeline — which is hardly a Ram 350 — it was about $120 for a fill. Little wonder Teslas abound on Robson and Burrard. There’s almost no way anyone could afford to drive at all without one..Even back in Alberta — which had extended the fuel tax holiday for the first time — it was still about $75 if I didn’t let it go to ‘E.' Small wonder, I felt a bit envious for the likes of my kid sis who seemed to have it made in the shade..But I keep warning her that those days are coming to an end. In fact, they have to end if the whole EV economy is going to work to anyone’s benefit — including theirs — at all..If and when fuel taxes ever come back to Alberta — and it’s reasonable to assume they will — the province is going to have to find a way to make up near $2 billion in lost revenue. Not just to the treasury, but for the deferred road maintenance as well..And it’s not just Alberta. Governments across Canada and even the US will face declining fuel tax revenues, which amount to about $8 billion annually. Assuming all vehicles sold in this country after 2035 will be zero-emission, those revenues will by definition trend to zero..According to the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association (CVMA), that translates into 39 million vehicles by 2050..Somebody is going to have to pay for all those chargers. According to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s own web site, Canada has about 20,000 publicly available charging stations and the government is spending $1.7 billion to install about 80,000 more by 2027..The problem is Canada is going to need at least 650,000 new outlets or nearly 10 times as many to keep up with the number of gas pumps, according to the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association (CVMA)..And that doesn’t even begin to consider the $16.3 billion in subsidies for Volkswagen to build the damned things..Which is to say, the free ride is over. It has to be..Nobody likes new taxes, but EV owners are an especially ornery bunch. In fact, they get downright indignant at the prospect of even paying pennies on the kilometre for the privilege. .In 2019 EV owners went ballistic when Illinois proposed a $1,000 yearly fee for electric vehicles to help fund a $45 billion transportation bill which would have, among other things, installed thousands of new chargers. That’s notwithstanding the state offers $4,000 cash back for the purchase of an all-electric vehicle..In that regard, $1,000 isn’t so outrageous. A driver of a 3/4 ton pickup pays at least that much..But what about the poor polar bears that stand to benefit from such acts of altruism? Doesn’t Big Oil gouge consumers enough?.These were the types of arguments that eventually convinced lawmakers to knock it down to $100..Still, 18 states adopted similar fees. Saskatchewan is the first in Canada to do so. And it doesn’t seem unreasonable, given that EV drivers hit the same potholes and snow drifts we all do..At this point there’s definitely a hint of schadenfreude in arguing for EV taxes. There’s little doubt as to what most Western Standard readers have to say about it (comments, please). But the reality is, they’re inevitable..Every time I tell my sister that day is coming, she shrugs. Not for long.
Fair’s fair..It’s easy for a pick-up truck guy like me to dump on Tesla owners for driving their fancy EVs and pointing their woke fingers for supposedly saving the planet. After all, my left-lib sister is one of them..I’m forever bombarded with tall tales of what a quiet ride it is, how it practically drives itself up the QEII while she reads a book and can go from zero to 60 in two seconds flat..She bought it when she was living in Toronto and received lavish subsidies from both the provincial and federal governments to buy it right off the showroom floor. Ontario was previously offering $14,000 to buy the car and another $1,000 for the charger, on top of the $5,000 offered from the federal government..Whenever I ask how much she paid, I just get a wink and and one of those ‘gotcha’ smiles..More than that, I get grilled — literally and figuratively — in the face on how cheap it is to operate. Especially how cheap it is to operate..Sure, it’s a bit of an inconvenience to keep charged, but she times it with her latte breaks at the local Starbucks to take advantage of the local public — meaning ‘free’ — chargers while she commiserates with her equally frugal social crowd who line up for their 20 minutes of disruption to their daily routines..So what if it takes 20 hours to get to the Left Coast? When it only costs the price of a cup of joe at Timmies, you can take as long as you like or your holiday allotment allows..The last time I drove down to Victoria in the fall, I was paying close to $2 per litre. Even in my Honda Ridgeline — which is hardly a Ram 350 — it was about $120 for a fill. Little wonder Teslas abound on Robson and Burrard. There’s almost no way anyone could afford to drive at all without one..Even back in Alberta — which had extended the fuel tax holiday for the first time — it was still about $75 if I didn’t let it go to ‘E.' Small wonder, I felt a bit envious for the likes of my kid sis who seemed to have it made in the shade..But I keep warning her that those days are coming to an end. In fact, they have to end if the whole EV economy is going to work to anyone’s benefit — including theirs — at all..If and when fuel taxes ever come back to Alberta — and it’s reasonable to assume they will — the province is going to have to find a way to make up near $2 billion in lost revenue. Not just to the treasury, but for the deferred road maintenance as well..And it’s not just Alberta. Governments across Canada and even the US will face declining fuel tax revenues, which amount to about $8 billion annually. Assuming all vehicles sold in this country after 2035 will be zero-emission, those revenues will by definition trend to zero..According to the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association (CVMA), that translates into 39 million vehicles by 2050..Somebody is going to have to pay for all those chargers. According to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s own web site, Canada has about 20,000 publicly available charging stations and the government is spending $1.7 billion to install about 80,000 more by 2027..The problem is Canada is going to need at least 650,000 new outlets or nearly 10 times as many to keep up with the number of gas pumps, according to the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association (CVMA)..And that doesn’t even begin to consider the $16.3 billion in subsidies for Volkswagen to build the damned things..Which is to say, the free ride is over. It has to be..Nobody likes new taxes, but EV owners are an especially ornery bunch. In fact, they get downright indignant at the prospect of even paying pennies on the kilometre for the privilege. .In 2019 EV owners went ballistic when Illinois proposed a $1,000 yearly fee for electric vehicles to help fund a $45 billion transportation bill which would have, among other things, installed thousands of new chargers. That’s notwithstanding the state offers $4,000 cash back for the purchase of an all-electric vehicle..In that regard, $1,000 isn’t so outrageous. A driver of a 3/4 ton pickup pays at least that much..But what about the poor polar bears that stand to benefit from such acts of altruism? Doesn’t Big Oil gouge consumers enough?.These were the types of arguments that eventually convinced lawmakers to knock it down to $100..Still, 18 states adopted similar fees. Saskatchewan is the first in Canada to do so. And it doesn’t seem unreasonable, given that EV drivers hit the same potholes and snow drifts we all do..At this point there’s definitely a hint of schadenfreude in arguing for EV taxes. There’s little doubt as to what most Western Standard readers have to say about it (comments, please). But the reality is, they’re inevitable..Every time I tell my sister that day is coming, she shrugs. Not for long.
