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I'm waiting for California to start taxing the hell out of ICE-powered vehicles to discourage their purchase on the used market, or just hike gas prices so high it's an enthusiasts-only tolerated kind of thing.

You can buy a rust-free used V8 SUV for like 2-3k in CA, and it'll be on the road for another decade if maintained.




This only hurts poor people.


It does but its not the only thing it does.


More fitting is taxing new ICE purchases. Lower income folks could still afford cheap, used vehicles, but folks trying to purchase a 50k, 18mpg sports car will find they'll have to pay an additional ~20k based on the car's emissions. You can make it easier to vote for by being tax-neutral and any revenue is used to fund credits towards new EV purchases -5k. The emissions tax and EV discount will be adjusted yearly to maintain revenue neutral. We should be optimizing a maximal ICE tax and maximal EV discount that minimizes emissions across all new cars. People dropping ~35k+ on new ICE cars, while there is an equivalent 35k EV, must pay to account for their externalities in a true market.


Naturally taxing new ICE makes used ICEs expensive after a few years.




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