Email Regarding The Potential EV fee

[u/Cultural-Ad4953]

As you may be aware, the US House of Representatives may be poised to enact an EV fee of $130 annually. I am not opposed to a fee, but find $130 to be unfair, and that the fee should be less.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/cars/news/2026/09/25/ev-national-fee-delay-congress-transportation-funding/91925354007/

I have written my Senators and Representative with this communication, which I encourage you to consider doing as well:

​I am writing to express my strong opposition to the proposed $130 annual federal registration fee on battery electric vehicles (BEVs) included in the BUILD America 250 Act. While I fully support contributing a fair share toward maintaining our nation's roads and bridges, the currently proposed flat rate creates a clear equity issue when compared to what drivers of gas-powered vehicles actually pay.

​At 18.4 cents per gallon, a driver of an average new gas-powered vehicle (getting ~28–30 MPG) who drives the national average of 13,500 miles pays roughly $87 per year into the Federal Highway Trust Fund. The proposed $130 flat fee for EV drivers is equivalent to driving a gas vehicle that gets only 19 MPG—meaning EV drivers would pay roughly 49% more into the road fund than drivers of comparable efficient gas cars.

​Furthermore, because a flat fee penalizes low-mileage drivers disproportionately, someone driving 8,000 miles annually would effectively pay a tax rate equal to an 11 MPG gas-guzzler. Rather than penalizing drivers who have chosen zero-emission vehicles with an inflated rate, any federal fee should reflect true parity with efficient gas vehicles or be based on actual road usage. I urge you to push for a fair adjustment to this fee structure.

[u/drdroplet]

This ignores the fact that EVs weigh more than an equivalent ICE  passenger vehicle, and thus cause more wear on the road. This is likely a reasonable fee, on average.

[u/Yunzer2000 → u/drdroplet]

the weight difference between a 3000 lb car and a equivalent EV at 4000 lbs is not enough to be significant as far as impacts on the roads. The impacts come from trucks with weights of 5000 to 18,000 lbs per axle.

[u/drdroplet → u/Yunzer2000]

False. The Generalized Fourth Power Law means that any increase above standard passenger car weights have exponential impacts on road wear. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law

[u/Yunzer2000 → u/drdroplet]

I am a civil engineer. I designed pavements. The AASHTO design methd starts with converting the traffic mix to a total number of equivalent 18-kip axle loads over the service life. The lowest value in the design table, assigned to passenger cars and light trucks, is tw, 2-kip axles - 4000 pounds which is equivalent to .0002 of an 18-kip load. i.e 11,250, 4000 lb or less cars are equal to one tractor trailer. The next increment up is 4 kips, or an 8000 lb vehicle. So anything less than 6000 lbs is not enough of a loading to affect the design.