Texas Wants To Tax EV’s More, VinFast Gets Big Investment Funding

Gasoline tax has been used for eons to fund roadway infrastructure, but what about EV’s? Vietnamese EV maker VinFast gets $2.5B lifeline.

Part of the taxes from your gasoline purchases goes into keeping your roadways updated and safe. It makes sense, too. More gas used, more roads used, more repairs and upkeep needed. But with a switch to EV cars, that money well is going to eventually dry up. TechCrunch has a report out that indicates EV owners will have a $200 registration fee per year to make up the difference.

Texas isn’t the first state to have a fee like this. California, along with several others have fees to replace lost revenue from gas tax. Georgia also wants $200 from EV owners, and a number of other states want over $100 annually as well, according to MYEV. Governments do like their money, and they will find ways to get revenue lost by the lack of gas tax, though opponents claim the fee makes EVs unaffordable.

Vingroup and VinFast founder together pledge a huge cash injection, but delay company IPO.

Along with the world market all together, the EV market has cooled a bit. That leaves companies like VinFast in a very vulnerable position. Not only are they facing competition from legacy automakers, but those legacy automakers have huge amounts of cash to build plants in the US for building cars and car batteries. Essential to get that $7,500 tax credit.

VinFast doesn’t have a US plant. And they are aiming to have a mass-market vehicle push in the US. They are going to need some help. And that help has come in the way of Vingroups own founder, Pham Nhat Vuong according to Reuters. Vuong, who also happens to be Vietnam’s richest individual, has pledged a $1 billion dollar grant. That grant is supplemented by Vingroup, with a $500M grant and $1B dollar loan. This investment news came as VinFast was expected to launch its IPO. That is now delayed. If VinFast wants to be viable in the US, it’ll have to have a huge amount of initial capital investment, with battery plants and manufacturing plants in order to compete with other tax eligible rides.

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Photos courtesy of Reuters, TechCrunch