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Submission + - Republicans in Congress want a flat $200 annual EV tax (arstechnica.com) 5

LDA6502 writes: The Republican chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is proposing a new annual federal vehicle registration fee of $200 for full EVs, $100 for hybrid EVs, and $20 for combustion vehicles. The tax would be tied to inflation, would be collected by the states, and would expire in 2035. Critics of the proposal note that it could result in low mileage EVs paying a far higher tax rate than heavy ICE trucks and SUVs.

Comment Re:Nissan Ariya (Score 1) 128

Nissan was good enough to put a bunch of buttons in their Ariya for often used functions.

Unfortunately, they're capacitance buttons. I found them terribly annoying to use. Same problem in the Kia EV6. You have to keep your eyes off the road for longer to ensure that you're pressing the button correctly.

Comment Re:Put aside EV charging stations for a moment. (Score 1) 288

As yet, to the best of my knowledge, zero companies have sued to block the DEI aspects of the rules, so presumably it isn't a very big deal to anybody other than the political right, who apparently just need something to complain about.

Given that reality, even if the DEI aspects of the funding were somehow declared unconstitutional, there's no reason to believe that it would have any impact on... well, anything. After all, if it were holding back construction, someone would have sued over it already.

That's partly due to how NEVI categorized under-served communities. There were multiple qualifiers for such areas, and it was quite common for an under-served community to qualify for several. If being a tribal community was eliminated as a metric for being too "woke", there is a good chance that it might still qualify under the rural and low income metrics.

Comment Re: To be fair (Score 1) 288

I read somewhere that in some parts of the world the EV drivers are expected to bring their own charging cable to public EV chargers. I believe that's a great idea. It means that there's no cables on EV chargers left hanging for vandals and copper thieves to rip off.

Such "bring your own" policies are limited to Level 2 AC charging where maximum current is limited to 63A (IEC 62196) or 80A (SAE J1772) and 400V.

The cable requirements for fast DC charging are much more demanding, where voltages can exceed 800V, current can exceed 300A, and where active cooling solutions may be utilized.

Comment Re:Smart home is dead, IoT killed it (Score 1) 18

While the thought of an organized theft ring buying access to my family's Rosey and using it to scope my home out, surveil our comings and goings, and then disarming the alarm is rather terrifying, the more mundane issue is worrying that my $10K purchase turns into a brick in six months when the manufacturer goes bankrupt and their control servers go down.

Comment Re:AI sucks (Score 5, Insightful) 23

"The underlying purpose of AI is to allow the wealthy to access skill while removing from the skilled the ability to access wealth."

And we are paying the price of building our replacements through higher electricity bills, greater amounts of pollution, and general enshittification of the world.

Comment Re:It's not the cost or the charging, it's the car (Score 1) 241

But it's like learning to drive all over again.

That true to some degree for all new cars. Took me about a week to get used to the idiosyncrasies of my Bolt.

it's difficult to know how fast one is driving as there is no engine sound.

Can't rely on engine noises with a CVT, either.

The jerky deceleration as the regenerative breaking kicks in was nerve racking.

That could just be a Tesla issue. Also, some EVs allow you to set the level of regenerative breaking. On my Bolt, with one pedal drive disabled, breaking is very similar to an ICE vehicle.

Charging at the office was a PIA, one had to download an app and request permission because they were private

That's actually a legitimate complaint with public chargers. I hate sites that don't accept a payment card or that require an app on your phone. There is an industry standard called plug & charge that allows you to associate a payment card with your vehicle and everything is done on the back end, but it isn't ubiquitous yet.

then discovered that the car didn't have an adapter so I had to go to a Tesla charger

That's on your rental company. Most folks who own an EV keep an adapter in the glove box or trunk.

The damn thing shut off at a traffic light when I opened the door because I thought it was not closed tightly and only knew it when the light changed to green and it wouldn't go. And the field of view was just awful, forcing me to rely on video cameras far to often.

Both Tesla issues. My Bolt just beeps if I open the door while in drive.

I'm 100% for removing all subsidies and government programs to increase the use of electric cars. Let the market decide. It may take another 20 years for us boomers to get out of the way. But at least *I* won't have to pay for it.

There are national security and economic interests in moving away from internal combustion engine vehicles. Look at the mess that happened when we involved ourselves in the Gulf War to protect our supply of oil. Look at the spike in inflation during the 1970s oil crisis and the 2022 energy crisis. Look at how climate change is affecting the cost of building and property insurance. Look at the blowback from Iran because the USA and the UK supported a coup against a democratically elected government that wanted to nationalize the country's oil sector.

Our dependency on oil has a destabilizing effect on the country and the world. It is in our interest to get off of oil as soon as possible. Which is why subsidies for electric vehicles are a good thing (and massive subsidies we currently give to the fossil fuel industry are not).

Comment Re:Don't hate the ICEV, hate fossil fuels. (Score 1) 85

In the Midwest USA we grow a lot of corn. That abundance and proximity to corn makes ethanol fuel popular.

Ethanol fuel is incredibly energy intensive to produce and contributes to soil and water degradation. And when edible crops have to fight for space with fuel crops, prices tend to go up.

Comment Re: New US Factory???? (Score 2) 85

Agreed. When people are one paycheck away from homelessness or starvation, they're ripe for manipulation if you can convince them that you'll solve those issues when elected, even if your promises are too good to be true. They'll tune everything else out, assuming that they were paying attention in the first place.

Comment Re:And the Dems lost (Score 5, Insightful) 71

You underestimate how much influence conservatives have gained over news and social media in the US and how much distrust they have sown against the competition. Most of the leading newspapers, television networks, and social media networks are owned or controlled by billionaires that either prefer Trump or opt to avoid his ire. It is why the term sanewashing has been used so often and why accusations of them having a blatant double standard are also so frequent.

When I talk to family that support Trump, it is as if they obtain their news from a different planet. And their distrust of anything outside of their media bubble is so great, one could argue that they're trapped in a cult of personality. It is that bad.

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