If you attended the recent Vancouver International Auto Show, you left with one overriding impression: the age of electric has arrived.
And so the EV acolytes, long languishing in the enviro-weenie wilderness, are having their day, their self-righteous smugness about saving the planet and sticking it to big oil, and big government, emblazoned like “EV OK” stickers on the back of their vehicles. Needless to say, with electric vehicles replacing gas-powered vehicles, TransLink’s fuel tax revenue will suffer, and as governments abhor a revenue vacuum, they will look to fill it.
This could easily be accomplished at a public charging station, where a tax could be applied to the per kilowatt cost; but it would be very difficult if not impossible to collect from people charging their EVs at their home. How to separate the electricity a homeowner uses to make toast and charge their car seems very problematic.