As early as January 2025, an annual $200 tax will apply to electric vehicles in Alberta. The government notes that EVs tend to be heavier than similar internal combustion vehicles and cause more wear and tear on provincial roadways. Other jurisdictions, including Saskatchewan and various U.S. states, charge fees meant to offset revenue that is lost through gas taxes. In Saskatchewan, road-use fuel tax revenue is dedicated to provincial highway maintenance. That’s not the case in Alberta, but the provincial government says there are **“nevertheless fairness concerns” ** with drivers of other vehicles and long-term challenges associated with declining fuel tax revenues.

I want to point out that this "fairness"concern, is an entirely fake concern. If it were a true concern, and if they were truly concerned with road wear and tear, they would have at some point in their preparation (har-dee-fucking-har) come across the Fourth Power Law. Put simply, the Fourth Power law states that damage to the road is proportional to the fourth power of the axle weight of the vehicle on the road.

This law has been public knowledge for about 70 years now.

Lets examine the consequences on road damage as determined by the law on a few typical model vehicles. Toyota Corrola , Rav4 , F150, , Chevy Bolt, Tesla Model 3.

• Corolla 1340 kg
• BoltEV 1628 kg
• Rav4 1,650 kg
• Tesla Model 3 1751kg
• F150 XL Regular Cab 1824 kg

Let’s use the Corolla as our baseline at 1340 KG, we can say this has a road damage rate of 1.

To compare to another vehicle, you simple divide the weights into each other and raise to the 4th power, this gives you a road damage multiplier. For example, the Damage multiplier for the BoltEV is: (1628/1340)^4 = 2.18x So sure, the BoltEV does about 2.18x the damage to the road as a Corolla, we are concerned aren’t we. Well, lets do the rest of the math anyway.

Damage Multipliers (vs a Corolla)

• Corolla 1x
• BoltEV 2.18x
• Rav4 2.30x
• Tesla Model 3 2.91x
• F150 XL Regular Cab 3.43x

That escalates rather quickly, I wonder, does the F150 XL regular cab driver pay 3.43 times the road tax per km driven than a Corolla driver? Since they pay the same flat gas tax rates, and thr same annual registration fees this will come down to fuel efficiency.

But what about fuel efficiency, surely it will be fair to the Corolla driver then! Since the gas tax is flat per liter, only l/100km matters here in determining if it is fair to the Corolla driver that the F150 pays the same rates per L as them, so lets math it out. The F150 would need the same 3.42x multiplier in fuel consumption to pay the same effective tax rate. The Corolla gets a combined 6.7L/100km and the F150 XL regular cab gets 12.5L/100KM. Which is nowhere near the required 3.43 multiple needed. Poor Corolla is subsidizing the F150 driver with their road tax.

Okay then smart guy, but you showed the BoltEV is 2.18x as damaging as the Corolla, so it is fair to pay road tax! Hah got ya

Alright, so maybe some road tax would be acceptable, if it were weight based and based on road use, but that isn’t the case. So let’s see how the $200 tax levels the field, shall we? We want a KM to KM comparison, a damage per km comparison, and to understand fuel taxes in Alberta.

Well Alberta charges 9 cents per liter this coming year having just lowered their fuel tax. Alberta also claims the average vehicle in the province travels 16,000-25,000 km per year, so lets split that difference for the math.

The Corolla gets 6.7L/100 km fuel efficiency, so every 100KM they spend 6.7*.09 = $0.603 dollars in road tax per 100km or $0.006 cents per km. At 20,000KM per year Corolla drivers pay $120.60 in road tax and doing 20,000km (baseline) in damage.

The F150 XL Regular Cab gets 12.5L/100 km fuel efficiency, so every 100KM they spend 12.5*.09 = $1.125 dollars in road tax or $0.011 cents per km. At 20,000KM per year F150 XL Regular Cab drivers pay $220 in road tax doing 68,600KM in damage.

BoltEV drivers will be expected to pay $200 a year, and driving 20,000km will do 43,800km of damage in a year.

So the BoltEV drivers are, like the F150 drivers, getting off a little lite vs the Corolla, but that’s the entire point isn’t it? That the old system isn’t fair, and now the new system isn’t either because the Corolla driver ends up subsidizing the BoltEV and the F150 XL Regular cab. At $200 in road taxes, the BoltEV at least comes kind of close to making up the difference to the Corolla, but the F150 gets a heafty discount for tearing up the road versus either other vehicle.

Because of the Fourth Power Law, the F150 traveling 20,000KM damages the roads as if the Corolla drove on it for 68,600KM, but the Corolla driver would pay $411 in road taxes versus the F150 who would pay $220. This is obviously unfair, so where is the concern Danielle? Where is the concern for fairness?

Worse yet, The F150 XL Regular cab is not the most popular F150. The most popular F150 is the Lariat at 2195kg or a whopping 7.199x road damage multiple. Where is the concern Danielle?

• What about the Tahoe (2596 kg / 14.1x Damage Multiplier)?

• What about the F250 ( 3458 kg / 44x multiplier)?

• What about the Siverado 2500 (3660 kg / 55x Multiplier)?

Where is the fairness Danielle? And don’t even get me started on the CO2 emissions difference between all these vehicles, Where is the fairness there?

At this point I really just feel bad for the sane people of that province.

Consider a standard sedan with two axles and a total weight of 2 tons. Assuming an even distribution, each of its axles would bear the weight of 1 ton. Now consider a semitruck with eight axles and a weight of 40 tons – each of its axles would weigh 5 tons. The relative damage done by each axle of the truck can be calculated with the following equation, and comes out to 625 times the damage done by each axel of the sedan.

Considering that the truck has eight axles and the sedan has two, the relative damage caused by the entire semitruck would be 625 x (8/2) – 2,500 times that of the sedan.

https://www.insidescience.org/news/how-much-damage-do-heavy-trucks-do-our-roads

Fairly sure that truckers aren’t paying 2500x what passenger vehicles are paying in taxes/fees.

also from the same article:

“The damage due to cars, for practical purposes, when we are designing pavements, is basically zero. It’s not actually zero, but it’s so much smaller – orders of magnitude smaller – that we don’t even bother with them,” said Karim Chatti, a civil engineer from Michigan State University in East Lansing.

Another hit to the benefits of driving electric. It was making so much sense to own an EV for me 3 years ago. Gas was expensive, our electricity was super cheap, and little maintenance.

Now, every year since we ordered, something new has come up to make it less appealing. No more tax credits, electric had it’s price cap removed, now this road tax is going to be another cost. It’s getting to a point where it’s cheaper to just buy a gas car again and suck it up.

Really appreciate the breakdown of the article in the comments OP. Cool to see some new math I’ve never heard of!

Everyone else: We’d better switch to EVs so as to look out for future generations.

Alberta: Fuck 'em.

Not even stubborn idiots - this is a purely reactionary move to subsidize luddites.