Ford stops taking orders on the lightening

ShinerBock wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:


Now add in the $0.184 federal gas tax...I was rounding to figure around $0.50 gal, so about $2/gal which up until the last year or so has been fairly typical. The exact percentage will vary as most are per gal, not per dollar taxes.

The problem is 40-50mpg cars are also common place so highway funding is already struggling. Currently, it's the high MPG gas cars but EVs paying nothing are justifiably viewed as not paying their fair share and there are moves to correct it.

I am not sure I can agree with the "fair share" part in regards to fuel efficient ICE/Hybrid vehicles. My BMW 328d gets 47 mpg combined and weighs 3,250 which is on the heavy side of most ICE vehicles that get around that mileage. Looking at the comparative damage chart below from an article I read about this years ago, it is doing about .45 comparative level of damage to the roads. My 8,500 lb Ram 2500 that gets 17 mpg combined is doing 21.3 comparative level of damage. So the car only getting 2.76 times better fuel economy, yet the truck is doing 47.4 times the comparative level of damage. Based on this, I would say my fuel efficient car is paying its fair share of it's comparative level of damage.

An EV on the other hand is pretty heavy and I 100% agree with you here. The extended range Lightning clocks in at 6,500 lbs and would be doing some extensive damage to the roads without paying fuel tax.

Yes heavy trucks do the vast majority of pavement damage. In fact, your table stops too soon. A 9 ton semi-tractor is basically running empty. An 80,000lb fully loaded semi tractor-trailer will clock in somewhere around 10,000 times the damage of a 4-5,000lb passenger car. When we do pavement design, passenger cars and light trucks are completely ignored. So yes, heavy trucks don't pay their fair share.

But, it's not just pavement damage that results in costs to maintain the roadway system. Signals, signs, drainage, pavement markings, turn lanes, multiple thru lanes, these are all heavily driven by serving passenger vehicles and weight doesn't really factor to a great degree.

But regardless, comparing a compact ICE car to a compact EV car, the EV paying zero is certainly not fair.