The electric vehicle transition and vanishing fuel tax revenues
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13110388 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bessie Noll (0000-0003-2747-8322, ETH Zurich, corresponding author), Tobias S Schmidt (0000-0002-7971-2187, ETH Zurich), Florian Egli (0000-0001-8617-5175, Technical University of Munich) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 207-211 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-02 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Nature Sustainability (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2398-9629 • E-ISSN: 2398-9629 |
| Publisher | Nature Portfolio (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1038/s41893-025-01721-7 |
| OpenAlex | W7118008611 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 13 |
As electric vehicle adoption accelerates globally, fuel tax revenues decline, exposing government budgets without a proposed replacement tax on electric vehicles. We estimate fuel tax transition exposure across 168 countries, demonstrating that relative exposure, in percentage of total government revenues, varies substantially by income level. Our analysis finds that global public revenues from fuel taxes totalled approximately US$900 billion in 2023. Crucially, we show that lower-income countries face disproportionately high exposure, experience frequent debt crises and possess limited institutional capacity to respond, potentially necessitating international support
Debt · Electric vehicle · Fuel tax · Government (linguistics · Government revenue · Revenue · Tax reform · Tax revenue · Electric Vehicles and Infrastructure · Energy, Environment, and Transportation Policies · Global Energy and Sustainability Research
| Highly cited | No |
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