Hacker News Reader

Comment by dirktheman | Hacker News Reader

I'm actually quite content with the system we have here in The Netherlands. Road tax varies by:

- weight of the car (lighter cars pay a lot less than heavier vehicles)

- type of fuel (CNG is taxed more than than regular gas, diesel even more so. The prices of CNG and diesel are lower though, so if you drive a lot than CNG or diesel are cheaper to run overall)

- Hybrids/EVs don't pay road tax (for now...)

There's also a variable tax on new vehicles which is based on the environmental footprint of the vehicle.

All this is pretty fair: if you're driving more you pay more tax, if you have an old, heavy or polluting vehicle you also pay more tax. Fair enough (there are even exepmtions for classic cars).Californians are spoiled though... in The Netherlands, regular gas is $7.20 per gallon.

View on HN

Diesel cars are taxed more. Yet diesel itself is subsidized. So there is a huge transfer of money where the payers and recipients are the same, only allowing plenty of money get lost in the friction (it's not the common folks who profit).

Driving old vehicles is taxed more. So people who can only afford old vehicles are paying subsidies to those who can buy a new Tesla. This is possibly the single most asocial rule in the world, and I'm honestly shocked that we have this in Europe that's otherwise reasonably socially aware.

But older vehicles aren't taxed more...? You don't pay the BPM (new car tax) and the road tax for a 1000kg car from 1990 is exactly the same as a new 1000kg car.

Also, the way the diesel scheme works is that there's a treshold so that it's only cheaper to drive diesels when you drive a lot of miles. Also, the heavier the car, the more miles you'd have to drive. But I'm sure you know this. And where exactly is 'money lost in the friction' here? Diesel prices are known, and tax brackets are pretty clear too.

I agree that we shouldn't subsidize $100k+ Teslas, but I'm all for rewarding people to drive cleaner vehicles. And calling it the single most asocial rule in the world... well, that's kind of a hyperbole, don't you think?

Related: I used to drive a 1986 Subaru Justy which ran 1:20 on regular fuel and costs next to nothing to insure and maintain. Cheapest form of motorized transport I ever had!

“... don’t pay road tax” doesn’t sound very fair to me.

They don't pay road tax for now, should have clarified that. It's used as an incentive to get people to buy cleaner vehicles. They will probably pay road tax after 2022.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com