EVs are supply constrained. Raising gas prices when the average EV is months from delivery and tens of thousands of dollars more expensive than ICE comparables is just mean.
That increases demand. The problem isn’t demand. People are putting down deposits and paying over sticker price. The problem is supply. The government buying EVs for everyone does nothing to solve that problem.
Add a $10/litre tax to all petroleum products that enter the country.
Give everyone $2000 a month.
People who continue current average driving habits and buy their normal products are unharmed.
People who car pool or switch to a lighter vehicle or other transport method or purchas low local transport cost products win.
FTFY
But seriously, this experiment is already playing out in NYC[0]. Every marginal % you tax a product, you push some number of consumers into the black market. At some point, the black market reaches a critical mass where the thing you're taxing might as well be banned.
[0]https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=new+yor...
This doesn't make sense, because you're still getting taxes on the white market merch. Even if black market merch dominates, its different from prohibition where you get no taxes.
This is, in fact, what is happening; in NL they're slowly but sharply increasing taxes on tobacco products. The other day they found and dismantled an "illegal" cigarrete manufacturing plant. Only illegal because it was sold untaxed, smoking itself isn't illegal yet.
Mind you, taxing and the other measures are working; the amount of people smoking has been reduced by a lot in the past few decades. But there will always be a market for tobacco and tobacco products.