Almost 200,000 plug-in electric vehicles were sold in 2017—more than any other year in the U.S. electric vehicle market. This comes as several major automakers, including General Motors, Ford, Volvo and Volkswagen, made announcements expanding the development and production of plug-in and all-electric cars.
Current electric vehicle sales only represent about 1 percent of all light-duty car sales in the United States, but as sales continue to climb, there are concerns this may lower gasoline tax revenues. The repairs and improvements to the nation’s highways have traditionally been funded primarily through federal and state taxes collected at the pump. Electric vehicles pay the same registration fees imposed on traditional vehicles and some transportation-related taxes, but electric vehicles don’t require gasoline to operate, so they don’t contribute to the upkeep of highways through a gas tax.