Proposed $130 EV Tax, Waymo Pulls Back, and Tesla Expands European FSD

[00:00:22] Hello everyone and welcome to Kilowatt, a podcast about electric vehicles, renewable energy, autonomous driving, and much, much more. My name is Bodhi and I am your host and on today's episode we are going to cover some news. We're going to start off with Tesla news and then I'll work our way through to the actual EV news. Let me pull up my document here because I just closed it on accident.

[00:00:49] Oh, you know what? Okay, so I was able to get through a large backlog of emails. So if you haven't received an email from me yet responding to an email that you sent even a while ago, it's coming. I'm working through the backlog and I know some people sent some emails about the Rivian and Lucid earnings calls recently and I'm definitely working on those as well.

[00:01:16] So just so everybody knows getting through that. Oh, oh, you know what? I have a question for everybody. Recently, we've had a number of new folks in the Kilowatt community based on download numbers and, you know, it's not an insignificant bump recently. And trust me, I'm very happy about the bump.

[00:01:41] But I was curious, if you're new to the show, are you listening because you're interested in EVs? Because the way that the world is right now? Did you recently just purchase an EV? This isn't something that I put two and two together recently on a recent Patreon subscriber actually said that they heard me on DTNS.

[00:02:04] They got a used EV, I believe, and they wanted to learn a little bit more about EVs. And then they came over here, which I love. I love. But if you're new to the show, are EVs a recent interest to you because of kind of what's going on in the world with gas prices and that stuff? I'm just curious. So send me an email. It's Bodie, B-O-D-I-E at 918digital.com.

[00:02:30] And speaking of DTNS, I was on Daily Tech News Show Weekend Edition, and I was talking about an AI development tool that I used called Lovable to basically make a virtual news desk where all of my articles come in and I can sort them and get them prepped for the show. I built a tool like that through Lovable.

[00:02:57] And if you want to listen to it, I'll put a link in the show notes. But basically, it was not about EVs. It was about something completely different. But, you know, Tom and I had a good chat. So if you want to listen to that, like I said, I'll have a link in the show notes for that as well. Okay, let's start off with our Tesla news here because I got a lot of EV news. So really filled the show up with the EV news. And then I got to Tesla and I was like, I'm running out of energy.

[00:03:26] So let's start with our Tesla news. First up, Tesla released FSD supervised in the Netherlands about five weeks ago. We now have a second European country to approve FSD supervised, and that is Lithuania. So great work at Tesla. They're on a roll.

[00:03:49] I don't know how many countries are in the EU, but you can scratch two off your list. So congratulations. Next up, Tesla said that the CyberCab is the most efficient EV ever. Again, that's according to Tesla. So they said the CyberCab, its efficiency is 165 watt hours per mile.

[00:04:15] So it expends 165 watt hours every mile that it drives. That's pretty good. Because when you look at the other vehicles, like the Lucid Air Pure rear wheel drive with 19 inch wheels, it's 230 watt hours per mile. The Model 3 rear wheel drive with 18 inch wheels, 240 watt hours per mile. That's the same with the Model Y rear wheel drive. The Ioniq 6 is 241 watt hours.

[00:04:45] It's the rear wheel drive. All of these are, not all of them. A lot of them are the rear wheel drive versions that they're comparing to. The Toyota's BZ3XXLE front wheel drive is 260 watt hours per mile. So, you know, 165. The lower the number, the better here. 165 is pretty good. But Aptera says that their EV will be 100 watt hours per mile.

[00:05:15] So around that. And so that's better. That's better than what Tesla is touting here. Now, I can hear a lot of you saying, but Aptera isn't producing a car yet and it hasn't been certified. You're right. Next story. Tesla is addressing a known hardware issue that affects the charging systems for early built Cybertrucks.

[00:05:41] The issue is with the power conversion system. So this converts, the way I understand this, it converts AC power to DC power. So when you're charging from an AC source, like a level two charger or even level one, it's converting it to DC so it can charge the battery. The problem is, is it's unable to use this AC side of the system. But you can still charge using a DC fast charger.

[00:06:08] And that's good news because Tesla is offering free supercharging because the parts that are needed to fix this are currently on back order. So until the back order is cleared, you can supercharge for free if you own one of those early Tesla Cybertrucks. All right. That was pretty fast. That was our Tesla news. Let's go ahead and jump into our EV news.

[00:06:32] The 2027 Chevy Equinox and Chevy Blazer EV got some interesting updates. The first one, and probably the best one, is that the cars now come equipped with a NACS port. So you can charge on Tesla supercharger network without having to have an adapter. Previously, the Blazer and Equinox EVs had a CCS port.

[00:07:00] Eventually, all new GM EVs will have the NACS port. But it's not quite, you know, they're not quite ready to make that conversion all at once. So I think the next ones are the Cadillac Lyric and the Chevy Bolt will come with that. And then, you know, as they release new models or updated models, then we'll get that NACS port. They did announce some stereo upgrades in these new models. I don't really care about that so much.

[00:07:27] But I guess people were complaining because the stereos were awful. So they have, I guess, an upgraded stereo system and then an option to purchase a more upgraded stereo system if you want to. So good for them. And then Super Cruise is available in all of the models and it will cost you $4,650.

[00:07:53] So cheaper than $8,000 for sure, which Tesla is no longer charging $8,000. Oh, that's another news story. And I forgot to put this down. Tesla is no longer offering a one-time payment for FSD supervised in Europe. Now you actually have to subscribe or you just don't get it. So that's another update.

[00:08:17] But anyway, the Super Cruise is going to cost $4,650. And it's up to you to decide if that's worth it to you or not. The Equinox EV starts at $35,000, a very reasonable price. And the Blazer EV starts at $45,000, which isn't too shabby either.

[00:08:42] Waymo is pausing operations in Atlanta and San Antonio because the roads are flooded. So this comes after a Waymo in Texas was caught blasting through a little area of a flooded roadway. And, you know, there was quite a bit of water, quite a bit of standing water on the roadway. And that's not safe for those cars to be in that situation. So somebody snapped a picture of it.

[00:09:11] And Waymo just decided to pause operations and they are going to issue a software update to correct the issue. Now, that's relevant here in Phoenix, too, because we do have roads, especially in the East Valley around, you know, the rural is a silly way to mention it. But the more unpopulated areas around Scottsdale and stuff and even further east of one, Queen Creek and Apache Junction and things like that.

[00:09:39] We have roads that kind of dip down. And when it floods, those roads will completely get washed out sometimes. There's actually a couple of roads near where I work. When it floods, those roads will be washed out because they kind of go down into that ravine, ravine, the channel. They go down into that channel and eventually there's enough water that it will wash them out.

[00:10:06] I've had to drive through these during flood times in the fire truck. And, you know, the fire truck's not going to get necessarily washed away. And it was totally safe when we were doing it. But I could definitely see where a car would have that could get washed away. So, you know, good on you. I'm expecting if they don't have it fixed, they'll pause that in Phoenix too.

[00:10:33] Just because Phoenix this year is supposed to get a ton of rain with the weather patterns during the summer. So we'll see if they have it fixed by then. Oh, and if I didn't say it, they're going to fix the issue with a software update. Okay, next up, Stellantis.

[00:10:53] Stellantis is investing nearly 70 billion US dollars or 60 billion euros on updating 50 existing vehicles and launching 60 new vehicles between now and 2030. So right now, the mix looks like this.

[00:11:10] So, 29 battery electric vehicles, 15 plug-in hybrid or extended range vehicles, 24 hybrids and 39 ICE vehicles or mild hybrids is what they put here. Yeah, so 29 EVs. That's pretty impressive. We'll see how many make it here to the US. Their focus will be on the following brands. It's Chrysler.

[00:11:37] Good news because Chrysler only has one car that they're currently selling. Dodge, Citroën and Opel. Now, there was some more announcements about specific EVs that Stellantis is planning on putting out. One of them was a Jeep. But honestly, I'm going to wait before putting too much effort into what Stellantis is doing with EV efforts.

[00:12:00] But having said that, and speaking of Stellantis' EV efforts, Stellantis is going to build EVs in France for Chinese car automaker, Chinese automaker Dong Feng. If that name sounds familiar to you, it's because we talked about them a couple weeks ago. And they were selling a luxury car for more money than they were selling the same car in Australia and China.

[00:12:30] And that created some sort of hubbub. Anyway, Dong Feng has a luxury brand called Voya. And one of the cars that Stellantis will be building is the Voya Free. They are going to be building this car in, like I said, France. The companies are going to be creating a joint company or a joint venture. Stellantis will own 51% and Dong Feng will own 49%.

[00:12:57] And this is very similar to the joint venture that Western companies have to do with Chinese companies when they build an EV or any car in China. So there's got to be a partnership. And I believe that's for most every production, not just cars. Anyway, yeah. So Stellantis is working very hard with Leap Motors. And now they've got a joint venture with Dong Feng. So interesting.

[00:13:23] We're going to have somebody on talking about their experience with their Leap Motors in a couple of weeks. So stay tuned for that. Before we get to our main story, I just want to thank everybody who supports the show on Patreon and Supercast. Whenever the economy gets bad, and it's bad in a lot of different places, not just here in the U.S., I always expect to lose Patreon supporters.

[00:13:53] I mean, and I totally get why, right? It is 100%. This is not a necessity in your life. You can get every single episode and just listen to a couple of ads rather than just giving me flat-out money. But we have very little churn on this show. And really, that makes me super appreciative. Like, there are people who decide to stop supporting for whatever reason, and that's okay.

[00:14:20] But by and large, we have, I mean, folks who have been still with the podcast since the very beginning. So I appreciate each and every one of you for supporting the show. So if you want to be one of those people, you can go to supportkilowatt.com. But if you don't and you just want to keep listening on the free feed, that's totally fine too. But yeah, honestly, and I don't know how to put this into words without sounding sappy.

[00:14:48] I do appreciate everybody who supports the show. I also appreciate everybody who sits through the ads. Because I get it. You know, it's not fun to sit through the ads either. But the show costs money to produce. It's not free. And it doesn't really make money so much as it gets close to breaking even. So any help that you can give, whether that's listening to all the ads or supporting the show on Patreon or Supercast, it's always appreciated.

[00:15:16] So thank you, everybody, for basically just sticking with me. I really appreciate that. And thank you to all the new folks as well. And if I didn't mention you specifically, thank you. It just comes down to I appreciate all of you. Thank you very much. You make doing this podcast a lot of fun. All right. Let's move on to our final and main story. This is America-centric. So if you don't live here, you can tune out now.

[00:15:43] The Build America 250 Act is more than 1,000 pages. And inside that act is a new federal registration for EVs and some plug-in hybrids that would basically require people to pay an annual fee to help offset the fact that they're not paying for road tax.

[00:16:04] So if you remember, you know, Congress floated this about a year ago and they wanted to charge EV owners $250 and hybrid owners $100 a year for the road tax. And that was just too much. Right. So the new proposed fee is $130 for battery electric vehicles and $35 for plug-in hybrids.

[00:16:29] And it will go up by $5 each year until it hits a maximum of $150 for EVs and $50 for plug-in hybrids. When I read this, I was like, hmm, that seems almost reasonable. Like I can't think of it when I read it, I was like, I can't really think of a way or reason to be upset about that.

[00:16:54] Until some advocacy groups pointed out that gas-only vehicles. So if you just had your regular, you know, Ford, I don't know, would probably wouldn't want to do an F-150. But if you just were driving around in a regular gas sedan or a small SUV, you pay around $73 to $89 a year in federal gas taxes.

[00:17:20] Which seems really low to me, but I did the math. So diesel owners are going to pay a little bit more, but I did the math and that's pretty close to being accurate depending on, you know, how fuel efficient your car is. So the federal gas tax hasn't been adjusted since 1993.

[00:17:45] So the federal gas tax, not federal and state, just federal, is $18.4 cents a gallon. Diesel, the federal tax is $0.24.4 cents a gallon. Those numbers haven't changed, or at least the gas tax hasn't changed since 1993. If the federal gas tax kept up with inflation, it would be $0.42 cents a gallon. Now I am not advocating that we raise our gas tax to $0.42 cents a gallon.

[00:18:13] But I am advocating for fairness between EVs and gas-powered cars. So this makes it a little weird because more than 40 states charge their own annual registration to EVs to make up for lost road taxes. For instance, I'm going to use North Carolina as an example because it's one of the higher ones.

[00:18:41] In North Carolina, EV owners pay $214 for state road tax. And then if we were to add another $130 on top of that, now we're creeping up to $344 a year to own an EV total. And I was like, well, that's interesting because based on how fuel-efficient your car is, you're going to pay a different amount for everybody.

[00:19:09] So if you had a car that got like 20 miles to the gallon, and in one year you drove 11,000 miles, which is not crazy. It's not a lot and it's not a little. You would put 550 gallons of gas in your car, and your annual gas tax would be around $225.

[00:19:33] So a $214 road tax wouldn't be ridiculous if you lived in North Carolina and you paid $0.41 cents a gallon. But let's kind of break that down as our cars get more efficient. So if you had a car that got 25 miles per gallon, you would use about 440 gallons of gas. And this is all based off 11,000 miles.

[00:20:00] You'd use about 440 gallons of gas per year. That would be $180 in North Carolina state road taxes or gas taxes, I guess, and $101 federal. So that's a total of $291. So we're already lower than the $344 that we were talking about earlier. So $291. That's if you had a car that was 25 miles per gallon.

[00:20:29] But we live in an age of fuel-efficient cars. So if we had a car that got 30 miles per gallon, what happens then? Well, we're going to burn about 367 gallons of gas per year. We're going to pay $150 in annual gas tax just for the state of North Carolina, $81 in federal tax. And that's going to get us down to $231.

[00:20:57] Now, there's a lot of hybrids out there that get more than 40 miles per gallon. So if we are just using 40 miles per gallon as the example here, that would be 275 gallons of gas, $113 in annual gas taxes. And we're not talking plug-in hybrids. We're just talking about hybrid hybrids. That would be $113 in annual state gas taxes, $50 in federal tax for $163.

[00:21:25] I think we can all argue that an EV that burns no fuel whatsoever is more efficient than a car that gets 20 miles per gallon. So as far as it goes, when it comes to these EV-specific taxes for road tax to pay for highways and things like that, I am going to rebuke any road tax that's higher than what the average driver pays in gas tax.

[00:21:55] I think it needs to be fair. I don't think it should be lower. I don't think it should be nothing. But it should be what the average driver pays. So what I'm proposing is we use 30 miles per gallon as a, like that's where we're at in terms of fuel efficiency. Again, we can all agree that EVs are way more fuel efficient than gas-powered cars. 30 miles per gallon.

[00:22:22] You can calculate 11,000, 12,000 miles, whatever floats your boat in this regard. And then whatever that number is, that's the gas tax or that's the tax that we pay. So it would be right around, let me go back up to my numbers here. For federal, it'd be right around $81. If we had a 30 miles per gallon car, a mile per gallon car, it'd be right around $81 for federal tax.

[00:22:50] And then whatever the state gas taxes, calculate that same thing. North Carolina, that would be $150. So I think that's the fair way to do it. We need to have a, this is what the standard gas car is going to pay. And this is, you know, this is, this is a middle of the road efficiency in terms of EVs and really inefficient gas cars. 30 miles per gallon. That's how we're going to calculate it. I think that's easy.

[00:23:17] And if you wanted to have a tiered system where if you're between zero and 8,000 miles, you pay X amount and 8,000 and 15,000 miles, you pay Y amount. Sure. But it still should be all calculated off of that number. If you don't want to track everybody's mileage for the year, which I think is difficult to do. Anyway, that is, that is my show. It's all I got for you today. Um, I, I, I don't know.

[00:23:47] The $130 doesn't seem too bad to me, but. In reality, if somebody is paying more than their fair share, I, I, I, I have an issue with that. By the way, I would have this same issue. If EV owners were paying $20 a year in road tax and gas, uh, owners were paying an average of $80 a year in gas tax. I would, I wouldn't be okay with that either.

[00:24:13] So I, I do think it's important to keep our infrastructure maintained and, uh, up to date. And I'm more than willing to pay for that. However, I'm not willing to pay more than somebody else just because I bought a fuel efficient car. And I don't think that's fair. All right, everybody. That is it for me. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And, um, yeah, I don't go, go listen to the daily tech news show.

[00:24:41] I'll put a link in the show notes and let me know what you think. And I will talk to you all soon.