Self-described Liberal Redneck opinion: I’m all for deleting the tax incentives for EV purchases, but ONLY if every single subsidy given to oil companies, field-corn farmers, and anything else related to ICEs is also deleted at the same time. You say taxpayers shouldn’t have to subsidize EV adoption? I say taxpayers…

If everyone went electric like some people want then how are we going to pay for road maintenance?

A lot weight-based vehicle miles traveled VMT tax is the fairest way to tax vehicles. Tolls aren’t needed.

No, that’s still bad. I can drive to my office on surface streets and completely avoid highways, even if it adds to my commute time by 5-10 minutes. This, then, would be completely unfair to those who can not avoid highways in their daily driving. There's lots of places where avoiding highways, just... isn't possible. 

I hereby announce my candidacy for Congress, on the platform that my signature legislation will be the “Ban Stupid Puns In Bill Names Act” (BSPIBNA), which will prevent Congresspeople from naming their proposed laws in ways where the acronym or initialism forms a word. 

Ah, yes, that definitely is more, uhm, compact! Characters vs letters aside, just about any culture will have some sort of expression to cover this life lesson.

The fairest way would be to abolish the taxes for both, and setup a toll system for all of America’s major highways and freeways. You want to use the road, you pay for it. Then it doesn’t matter what you’re driving, everyone pays the same amount for the same benefit of use.

I’m not suggesting we do this however. It…

The gas tax hasn’t been raised since the early 90s. Hybrids getting 40-50mpg pay substantially less than traditional gas cars. I hear no one ever ask those to pay more.

I do like the more resigned than revolutionary vibe of “Hey, you don’t have to listen. You can just feel the pain.”

There are essentially no after-market parts available for Teslas.  Finding a replacement door or fender usually means taking one from a wrecked car.  Any of the wiring or electronics have to come from Tesla, and their top priority is making new cars, not servicing existing ones.

When you consider that Toyota had to back off the instant-torque their hybrids initially provided, can you imagine an ICE driver stepping on the pedal on a Tesla EV and realizing there’s little to no delay on the giddy-up?

The 0-60 on a standard Model 3 can be under 6 seconds (and just get faster from there) and most…

Rental cars get a lot of minor damage. I rented a car in the Middle East where the company didn’t try to keep the cars looking perfect and it had about a hundred places on the front and rear bumper covers that were missing paint when I picked it up.

Because the cars are only kept for a few years and they don’t really bother with maintenance, the majority of rental fleet expenses are from repairing damage. If the anecdotes are to be believed, a Tesla fender bender is terribly expensive and takes months to repair. Maybe part shortages kept EV fleet cars out of the…

This really works, though it’s not surprising since the Blazer already had a ton of Camaro-like design cues. 

What blows my mind is Hertz just went whole hog into evs without trying them out in test markets for a couple years.

Operating an EV even now is a steep learning curve if you dont have a place to charge at home.  It takes a bit to get in the hang of finding and using chargers if you dont have one readily available to you.  Its not surprising people that people wont want to tackle that curve while on vacation.

1st Gear: Tesla really shafted Hertz with their price cuts. It doesn’t help when Tesla’s service centers are few and far between and their wait times are not conducive to the kind of quick turnaround rental companies need.

Avis requires a charge of 70% upon return.

“most rental car companies don’t make you recharge”

Hertz really did get shafted by Tesla lowering the prices.

The sad thing is, I think the majority of rental car customers would get by just fine with an EV. In fact, since most rental car companies don’t make you recharge before returning the car, dropping it off is easier than ICE cars because you don’t have to worry…