Bingo.  The only reason it started as a fuel tax is it was easier to regulate and collect and consumers don't really notice it compared to a separate annual tax bill.   But it should be closer in cost to the old tax.

Most of it simply accelerating depreciation of assets.  E.g whatever they spent on T3 that was capitalized was on a multi year depreciation schedule with the expense spread out over 5-10 years.  If they no longer plan to use it they'll take a charge for the full amount today so that the incremental depreciation doesn't continue to show up as an operating expense for the next 7 years.  The money was already spent - it's just bookkeeping.  The rest is actual cash that has to be spent to wind things down.

The problem with that approach is many people fiercely oppose it because it is viewed as big brother tracking them. It’s a tough problem but EVs drivers do need to pay taxes for road and bridges also.

I don't necessarily oppose this - however, the correct way is to drop the gas tax and move ALL roadgoing vehicles to a mileage based fee structure. Gas, hybrid, or EV...all equal in the eyes of the tax collector.  

US House transport committee head wants to collect EV fees for highway repairs | Reuters    

The biggest hurdle to EV demand has been cost.  $30k EV pickup will easily have 3-4 times the demand of a Lightning.

To answer your question, I kinda see Rivian as like Mazda almost, or Buick. A halfway brand that makes pretty nice cars that aren't super affordable, but are nice for what they offer and aren't insanely expensive either. 

You should clarify this to mean BMW car (bimmer) drivers, not BMW motorcycle (beemer) riders.  I fall into the later and beemer riders are big on safety.

here is my question-how is the downturn in demand and the impact of that on battery building going to affect that?   I know in the past that I saw that projections about 4-5 years ago it was expected that the KwH for a battery in 2030 would be significantly cheaper then it was back in 2021 or so.   But with the recent contraction and repurposing of battery cell production, how much impact is that going to have the KwH costs? I have this feeling the build out won't be as much as it was expected to be. 

I'm not sure how the accounting works, but from what I understand, an actual loss vs actually losing money are two different things.   Its not like Ford isn't profitable, they are just spending money on something that is bringing back zero in return for the next 12 months. Once the CE1 pickup hits, the number should narrow and be profitable on the books, according to Ford, within a year or so of launch.    So basically this money is considered a loss because their is no investment that will be returned on it, Not that they are losing funding that is impacting other factors of the business.