GoKawiilThey might be better than gas-powered cars in most conceivable ways, but electric vehicle sales are having an undeniably hard time right now. The cause is no mystery: since January 2025 the US government has been actively hostile to the idea of energy efficiency and in the intervening months has taken an axe to fuel efficiency regulations, prosecuting polluters, and the consumer-facing tax credit.
That last one had the effect of bringing forward sales from people who needed an EV and knew the credit was expiring at the end of last September, leading to a rosy-looking Q3 2025 followed by a rather bad Q4. Things got even worse this year—in January just 5.1 percent of all new vehicles sold were EVs, compared to 8.3 percent in January 2025. But the government’s antipathy toward EVs isn’t done yet. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Sam Graves (R-Mo.) wants to include an annual $250 tax on EV drivers—hybrids would also pay $100 a year—in an upcoming bill.
This is the second time Graves has tried to tax drivers of more efficient vehicles; last year the committee under Graves wanted to include an escalating EV tax, starting at $200 annually, into the budget but was unsuccessful.
Why?
Federal highway spending is funded by taxes that drivers pay when they buy gasoline (or diesel), and since EVs don’t use any fuel, they don’t contribute to maintaining the roads. As arguments go, it holds water. EVs do use the roads, and since they’re usually a few hundred pounds heavier than an equivalent gas car, they do wear those roads a little more, although given that wear scales with the fourth power of weight, neither compares to an ambulance or bus or garbage truck. And at some point in the future, when EVs comprise a meaningful percentage of the US daily driving fleet, some kind of road use fee would be entirely appropriate.
When only 1 in 20 new cars is electric, the move is little more than symbolic, particularly since the federal gas tax hasn’t been increased since 1993. “EV drivers should pay into the road funding system, but taxes on EV drivers alone—no matter how excessive—won’t solve the larger problem of transportation funding shortfalls,” said Chris Harto, Consumer Reports’ head of sustainability advocacy. Harto and policy analyst Dylan Jaff have written a white paper with a number of principles for policymakers like Graves to consider when trying to address surface transportation funding.