An Arizona state lawmaker has introduced a bill that would slap a penny per mile tax on EV drivers. Similar bills are already being considered in Oregon, Washington and Kansas.

The electric car may have come back from the dead, but it won’t escape life’s other inevitability. An Arizona state lawmaker has introduced a bill that would slap a penny per mile tax on EV drivers, Cronkite News reported this week. Similar bills are already being considered in Oregon, Washington and Kansas.

“One of the only ways we pay for our roadways is through gas tax,” said Rep. Steve Farley, D-Tucson. “If they’re not paying into the gas tax system, we need to find a way of closing that loophole and getting them to pay for the roads they use.”

Jim Stack, president of the Electric Auto Association’s Phoenix chapter, said EV drivers are willing to pay their share. “Someday it’s all going to be hybrids and electric vehicles. It wouldn’t do us any good if we didn’t have any roads.”

Others were not so friendly to the idea, noting that EVs protect air quality and public health, and that additional costs could discourage buyers before the market has had time to get going.

“Any policy that is accounting for electric vehicles should be incentivizing, not discouraging, their use,” said Diane Brown, of the Arizona Public Interest Research Group.

Image: Nissan