California legislators are falling all over themselves trying to come up with additional taxes to fund road repairs and maintenance in the state. Some legislators feel that electric vehicles are getting a free ride and not paying their fair share of gas taxes. Rather than increase our 36 cent per mile state tax (plus 7.5% sales tax, I believe), one legislator has introduced a bill to charge all electric vehicles a flat $165 - on top of the yearly registration fee, which is based upon the initial price of the vehicle, to fund road improvements. Naturally there appears to be no reduced fee being contemplated for electric motorcycles. This would be in addition to the $200 yearly registration fee that I pay for my Zero (as an example).
I have been riding my Zero about 4000 miles a year, which is about the same mileage that I average for my other 5 IC motorcycles. Their gas mileage ranges from 45 mpg to 70 mpg. Just to use a 50 mpg number, that would mean that I am paying about $29 per year in road taxes (I actually am paying less) to operate one of my IC motorcycles for 4K miles. So, needless to say, I am not in favor of being charged $165 a year to ride my Zero 4000 miles.
Apparently the legislator floating this funding balloon assumes that every EV owner drives an expensive Tesla and can afford to pay a generous contribution toward fixing our roads. If this proposal becomes law, it is not going to do anything to increase electric motorcycle sales, especially if the ultimate plan by manufacturers is to reduce the initial cost to make electric motorcycles more affordable to the general public.
