Last month, the Alberta government introduced an EV tax policy that was characteristically against the grain. 

Starting as early as 2025, EV owners in the province will pay an extra $200 to register their vehicles, Finance Minister Nate Horner said in his Feb. 29 budget. The reason: Electric vehicles tend to weigh more than traditional combustion engines, and therefore “cause more wear and tear on provincial roadways.” 

Directionally, the policy was a 180-degree turn from those introduced by Ottawa and several other provinces, which are trying to encourage residents to buy EVs by subsidizing vehicle costs. Some residents decried Alberta’s new tax as pure political gamesmanship.   

But it nonetheless highlighted a genuine issue with EVs versus traditional gas-powered vehicles: Batteries aren’t just expensive, they’re also heavy. 

“The electric vehicle version right now is heavier, and that’s due to the battery size needed in order to have a comparable range,” Kevin Heaslip, director of the University of Tennessee’s Center for Transportation Research, told The Logic in an interview. 

A traditional Ford F-150 weighs between 6,220 and 7,300 pounds, Heaslip said, while the company’s all-electric F-150 Lightning weighs between 8,250 and 8,550. That extra weight limits how far EVs can travel on a single charge, and undermines energy efficiency compared with combustion engines. Weightier EVs have even prompted safety concerns from some U.S. regulators. 

Automakers, keen to correct the disparity, are looking to cut weight. Stellantis CTO Ned Curic recently said EV batteries are “just too heavy,” and has laid out plans to slash the company’s battery weights in half by 2030. Toyota recently announced a “technical breakthrough” in its solid-state battery technology that it claims will cut battery weight by 50 per cent. 

In response to The Logic’s questions, Alberta Finance spokesperson Savannah Johannsen said taxes on EVs are “commonplace” and help the province raise revenues on drivers that don’t pay fuel taxes. (Saskatchewan introduced a $150 EV tax in 2021.)

But the challenge of vehicle weight isn’t new, nor is it confined to EVs. Vehicles have been getting heavier with each passing year. Drivers increasingly favour larger vehicles with more space, Heaslip said, forcing engines and batteries alike to carry larger and larger loads. In 2000, the F-150 weighed between 5,400 and 6,200 pounds. Today’s models are roughly 30 per cent heavier. 

All of this raises questions about why, if Alberta is truly accounting for road wear with its $200 fee, the province is explicitly targeting EVs. While electric vehicles are heavier than their comparable counterparts, the average four-door electric sedan weighs significantly less than most full-size trucks. 

The F-150, which might as well be on the province’s coat of arms, weighs at least 6,200 pounds. Hyundai’s 2023 electric Kona SUV, by comparison, comes in at a relatively svelte 4,700. 

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