Someone has to make up for lost revenue to fix the roads.
You're working off the false premise that fuel excise pays for roads. Like most govt revenue sources it goes into general revenue. What governments choose to spend on roads is not in any way tied to income from fuel taxes. If anything the money is used to cover the hideous extra health costs caused by air pollution from ICEVs.
The poor air quality causes thousands of extra early deaths per year and significant numbers of respiratory and related conditions costing $billions. This is long established and well known to governments, e.g. via
official reports from the Federal Department of Transport that have been available for a long time.
People buying EVs here are already paying more in GST than for the equivalent ICEV, and probably paying luxury vehicle tax as well given their price.
Then there's the special brand of idiocy that the State of Victoria levies the EV road tax
no matter where in Australia your EV is driven. Take a trip interstate and use another state's roads? That revenue comes back to Victoria. lol
It is a federal tax to replace the former state excise that was ruled out by the High Court and is returned to the States proportionately.
And given that very same High Court ruling you have to wonder just how constitutionally sound this state EV charge actually is. Indeed
a High Court challenge has already been initiated.
In principal I have no issue with road user charge. But levy it equitably on
all vehicles and in proportion to the damage they actually cause, both to roads and to our health. If anything a per km road user charge on all vehicle (scaled by vehicle weight)
and a fossil fuel excise is probably the right mix given the additional costs which accompany the use of fossil fuel in vehicles.