Gas vs Electric Car
The electric car usually costs more to buy and less per mile to run. The gas car is cheaper upfront but you feed it more at the pump and the shop. The real question is whether the EV's lower running cost ever pays back its price premium — and that depends entirely on your miles, fuel prices, and incentive.
Your numbers
This isolates the fuel + maintenance + price-premium question. It excludes depreciation/resale, financing interest, insurance, and registration — those are roughly similar across the two or too variable to model honestly. Enter your real local prices for the truest answer.
Gas car
Cheaper to buy, but you pay for it at the pump and the shop over the years you keep it.
Total cost over 7 years
—
Energy cost per mile
—
Annual fuel cost
—
Annual running cost (fuel + maint)
—
Net upfront price
—
Electric car
Costs more upfront (less the incentive), but electricity per mile and maintenance are usually lower.
Total cost over 7 years
—
Energy cost per mile
—
Annual charging cost
—
Annual running cost (charging + maint)
—
Net upfront (after credit)
—
Cumulative cost over time
What this compares (and what it doesn't)
This calculator isolates one question: does the EV's cheaper fuel and maintenance ever pay back its higher purchase price? So it adds up exactly three things on each side — the net price you pay to drive it off the lot, the energy to move it a mile, and the maintenance and repairs to keep it running.
It deliberately leaves out a lot: depreciation and resale value, financing interest, insurance, and registration or road-use fees. Some of those (insurance, registration) are roughly similar between two comparable cars; others (resale, financing) are too variable to model without misleading you. Pretending to know your three-year resale value would make the answer look precise when it isn't. So we leave them out and tell you we left them out — the math you see is the math that's actually here.
Why EVs win on running cost
Two reasons, and they compound over the miles:
- Electricity per mile is usually far cheaper than gas per mile. At 0.17/kWh and 3.5 mi/kWh, an EV spends about 5 cents a mile on energy. A 28-MPG gas car at 3.50/gal spends about 12.5 cents — more than double. Across 12,000 miles a year that gap is real money.
- Fewer moving parts means less maintenance. No oil changes, no timing belts, no exhaust system, far less brake wear (regenerative braking does most of the work). The repair bills that pile up on an aging gas car mostly don't exist on an EV.
But none of this is a law of physics — it's a function of your local electricity rate versus your local gas price. In a few regions electricity is expensive and gas is cheap, and the gap narrows or flips. That's why every number above is an input: put in your real ones.
When gas still wins
The EV's running-cost advantage only matters if you drive enough miles to bank it before the price premium does you in. Gas wins when:
- You don't drive much. Low annual mileage means the per-mile savings are small, and the EV's higher purchase price never gets amortized. A car driven 5,000 miles a year may never break even.
- Cheap gas, expensive electricity. Flip the usual price relationship and the running-cost gap shrinks or disappears.
- No incentive. The US federal EV tax credit ended for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025, and state or utility incentives are patchy — many buyers now pay the full upfront gap, which takes far longer to recover.
- Road-trip and charging-access realities. If you road-trip constantly or can't charge at home, you'll lean on public DC fast charging — which costs much more than home rates and changes the math (see the FAQ).
About the incentive
The purchase incentive is the single most volatile number on this page. It varies by country and, within the US, by state and utility — the federal clean-vehicle tax credit (up to $7,500) ended for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025. If a state or utility incentive applies to you, enter it; otherwise leave this at 0.
FAQ
Does home vs public charging change this?
A lot. The default electricity price here assumes home charging. Public DC fast charging often costs 2–4× a home rate — sometimes more than gasoline per mile once you account for it. If you'll do a meaningful share of charging on public networks, enter a blended rate that reflects your real mix (mostly-home, occasional-road-trip drivers might use something a little above their home rate; can't-charge-at-home drivers should enter the public rate). The whole EV-wins story depends on that number, so be honest about it.
What about battery replacement?
It's rare within a typical ownership window. Modern EV battery packs are warrantied around 8 years / 100,000 miles, and most degrade gradually (a slow loss of range) rather than failing outright. A buyer keeping a car 7 years and 84,000 miles is very unlikely to pay for a pack out of warranty, so we don't model it. If you plan to keep the car well past the warranty and into high mileage, that's a real tail risk worth pricing in separately.
Should I include resale value?
We don't model it, on purpose — EV resale has been unusually volatile, swinging with new-model pricing, incentive changes, and battery-health perception, so any single number we picked would be a guess dressed up as a fact. If you have a reliable resale estimate for both cars (from a pricing guide or your own experience), the clean way to use it is to subtract each car's expected resale from its total above. That turns "total cost of ownership" into "net cost after you sell," which is the most complete view — just make sure the estimate is genuinely reliable.