[mulmen]

Or we could do both? Personal transportation is never going away completely. Personal transportation should absolutely subsidize public transportation such as through car tabs. But we can still incentivize the types of personal transportation we want to see on the road through subsidy, especially when those markets are still emerging.

[munk-a]

I think it'd be extremely reasonable to incentivize preferable forms of personal transportation by simply levying additional gasoline taxes or introducing an annual ICE ownership tax. Those would both have the potential to provide a similar level of comparative incentive to move away from ICEs without excluding lower earners.

[mulmen]

I don't follow. California is subsidizing low(er)-cost EVs, doesn't that put EVs into reach of people who couldn't otherwise afford them?

Basic economics says that as we increase the supply of something the price goes down, so even if this doesn't get EVs to a price where everyone can afford them it gets them to a point where more people can afford them.

Gas tax is a consumption tax, which is inherently regressive. This means that it costs more for lower earners as a proportion of their income. If a low wage earner wants an EV they can't currently afford one. A gas tax punishes them for this financially and makes it less likely they will be able to save for an EV. Meanwhile higher earners that can afford EVs don't pay the gas tax because they don't buy EVs.