EV vs Gas Cost Calculator
Cost per mile for an electric car against a gas one, from electricity and fuel prices and real efficiency — with annual savings and the break-even gas price.
EV vs Gas Cost Calculator: with the default inputs, annual saving with the ev is $514.
The US average is roughly 13,500 miles a year.
The EPA figure on the window sticker. 25–30 for a sedan, 35–48 for a truck or big SUV. Cold weather makes it worse.
Check your bill: total dollars divided by total kWh, including delivery charges.
Most owners charge at home most of the time. Road trips and apartment dwellers push this down.
DC fast charging typically runs 40–60¢ per kWh, two to four times the home rate.
Use real-world economy, not the combined sticker figure, which most drivers do not achieve.
Negative means the gas car is cheaper to run.
- EV cost per mile
- $0.0722
- Gas car cost per mile
- $0.1150
- EV cost per year
- $866
- Gas car cost per year
- $1,380
- Break-even gasoline price
- $2.17The price per gallon at which the gas car costs the same per mile as the EV.
- Break-even electricity price
- $0.345The price per kWh at which the EV costs the same per mile as the gas car.
- MPG the gas car would need to match
- 47.8At the fuel price you entered.
- Electricity used per year
- 4,000kWh drawn from the wall, including charging losses.
- Gallons burned per year
- 400
Assumptions
- Running costs only: fuel or electricity, plus whatever maintenance you enter. Purchase price, depreciation, insurance, registration, tax credits and charger installation are excluded.
- Electricity prices, gasoline prices, efficiency figures and mileage are all your inputs — no rate or price is assumed or sourced, because all four vary enormously by state, utility and month.
- Charging losses are applied so the EV is costed on energy drawn from the wall rather than energy delivered to the battery.
- Efficiency is treated as constant. In reality EV consumption worsens 20–40% in cold weather and at highway speeds, and gasoline economy also falls in winter and in traffic.
- The blended electricity price is a simple weighted average of home and public rates. Time-of-use tariffs, demand charges, per-session fees and subscription plans are not modelled.
- US units: miles, gallons and kWh. Enter kilometres if you prefer — the mileage field converts — but fuel economy is mpg and fuel price is per gallon.
| Price | EV cost per mile | Gas cost per mile |
|---|---|---|
| $0.10/kWh vs $2.50/gal | $0.0333 | $0.0833 |
| $0.15/kWh vs $3.00/gal | $0.0500 | $0.1000 |
| $0.20/kWh vs $3.50/gal | $0.0667 | $0.1167 |
| $0.25/kWh vs $4.00/gal | $0.0833 | $0.1333 |
| $0.35/kWh vs $4.50/gal | $0.1167 | $0.1500 |
| $0.50/kWh vs $5.00/gal | $0.1667 | $0.1667 |
Each row pairs an electricity price with a gasoline price so you can see how the two scales line up. Your own efficiency figures are held constant.
How this is worked out
The formula
EV energy from the wall (kWh per mile) = (kWh per 100 miles ÷ 100) ÷ (1 − charging losses)
Blended electricity price = home price × home share + public price × (1 − home share)
EV cost per mile = kWh per mile × blended electricity price
Gas cost per mile = gasoline price per gallon ÷ miles per gallon
Annual saving = (gas cost per mile − EV cost per mile) × annual miles
+ gas maintenance − EV maintenance
Break-even gasoline price = EV cost per mile × mpg
Break-even electricity price = gas cost per mile ÷ EV kWh per mile
Equivalent mpg = gasoline price ÷ EV cost per mileOpen How it’s calculated above to see this worked through with your own numbers.
What you enter
- Miles driven per year
- The US average is roughly 13,500 miles a year.in mi, km · 0 or more · defaults to 12000
- EV efficiency
- The EPA figure on the window sticker. 25–30 for a sedan, 35–48 for a truck or big SUV. Cold weather makes it worse.from 1 to 200 · defaults to 30
- Home electricity price
- Check your bill: total dollars divided by total kWh, including delivery charges.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 0.17
- Charging done at home
- Most owners charge at home most of the time. Road trips and apartment dwellers push this down.a percentage · from 0 to 100 · defaults to 85
- Public fast-charging price
- DC fast charging typically runs 40–60¢ per kWh, two to four times the home rate.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 0.48
- Charging losses(under More options)
- Energy that goes into the wall but not into the battery. About 10% on AC home charging, 5% on DC fast charging.a percentage · from 0 to 40 · defaults to 10
- Gas car fuel economy
- Use real-world economy, not the combined sticker figure, which most drivers do not achieve.from 1 to 200 · defaults to 30
- Gasoline price
- A number.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 3.45
- EV maintenance per year(under More options)
- Leave both at zero to compare fuel alone. EVs have no oil changes, spark plugs, belts or exhaust, but tyres wear faster.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 0
- Gas car maintenance per year(under More options)
- A number.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 0
What you get back
- Annual saving with the EVmain answer
- Negative means the gas car is cheaper to run.
- EV cost per mile
- Gas car cost per mile
- EV cost per year
- Gas car cost per year
- Break-even gasoline price
- The price per gallon at which the gas car costs the same per mile as the EV.
- Break-even electricity price
- The price per kWh at which the EV costs the same per mile as the gas car.
- MPG the gas car would need to match
- At the fuel price you entered.
- Electricity used per year
- kWh drawn from the wall, including charging losses.
- Gallons burned per year
What this assumes
- Running costs only: fuel or electricity, plus whatever maintenance you enter. Purchase price, depreciation, insurance, registration, tax credits and charger installation are excluded.
- Electricity prices, gasoline prices, efficiency figures and mileage are all your inputs — no rate or price is assumed or sourced, because all four vary enormously by state, utility and month.
- Charging losses are applied so the EV is costed on energy drawn from the wall rather than energy delivered to the battery.
- Efficiency is treated as constant. In reality EV consumption worsens 20–40% in cold weather and at highway speeds, and gasoline economy also falls in winter and in traffic.
- The blended electricity price is a simple weighted average of home and public rates. Time-of-use tariffs, demand charges, per-session fees and subscription plans are not modelled.
- US units: miles, gallons and kWh. Enter kilometres if you prefer — the mileage field converts — but fuel economy is mpg and fuel price is per gallon.
About this calculator
"Is an electric car actually cheaper?" has a real answer, and it depends on four numbers: what you pay for electricity, what you pay for gasoline, how efficient each car is, and — the one most comparisons skip — how much of your charging happens at home. Charge at home at 17¢ a kWh and an EV costs about a third of what a 30 mpg car costs to fuel. Charge on public DC fast chargers at 48¢ and the advantage can vanish entirely.
The break-even price is the useful number
Cost per mile is what you want to compare, but it changes every time either price moves. The break-even gasoline price collapses all of that into one figure: the price per gallon at which your gas car would cost exactly what the EV costs. If gasoline in your area is above it, the EV wins; below it, the gas car does. The same logic runs the other way with the break-even electricity price, which is useful if your utility has time-of-use rates and you are deciding whether overnight charging is worth rearranging your life for.
Where the energy actually goes
An EV's efficiency is quoted as kWh per 100 miles on the EPA window sticker — lower is better, the opposite of mpg. But you are billed for electricity that goes into the wall, not electricity that reaches the battery, and roughly 10% is lost as heat in between on home AC charging (about 5% on DC fast charging). This calculator adds that back, which most comparisons quietly omit and which makes the EV look about 10% better than it is.
What this deliberately excludes
Only running costs are here. Purchase price, depreciation, insurance, registration, tax credits and the cost of having a 240 V charger installed are all outside the model, and any one of them can dwarf the fuel difference. An EV that saves $900 a year in fuel but costs $8,000 more up front and $400 more a year to insure is not a saving. Add maintenance yourself under More options if you want it counted: EVs skip oil changes, spark plugs, belts, exhaust systems and most brake wear thanks to regeneration, but they eat tyres faster because they are heavy and torquey.
Cold weather is the big asterisk
A gasoline engine heats the cabin with waste heat it was going to produce anyway. An EV heats the cabin out of the battery. In a cold winter that can cut effective range 20–40%, which is the same thing as making your kWh per 100 miles 20–40% worse for months at a time. If you live somewhere with real winters, do not use the sticker figure — use a worse one and see what the answer looks like then.
Frequently asked questions
▸Is an electric car cheaper to run than gas?
Usually, if you charge at home. At 17¢ per kWh a 30 kWh/100 mi EV costs about 5.7¢ a mile against 11.5¢ for a 30 mpg car at $3.45 a gallon — roughly half. If you rely on public fast charging at 48¢ per kWh the EV costs about 16¢ a mile and the gas car wins.
▸What is the break-even gas price?
The price per gallon at which your gasoline car costs the same per mile as the EV. Multiply the EV's cost per mile by the gas car's mpg. Above that price the EV is cheaper; below it, it is not.
▸How many kWh does it take to drive 100 miles?
Between about 25 and 30 for an efficient sedan, 30–38 for a crossover, and 40–48 for a full-size electric truck. Add roughly 10% for charging losses, because you pay for what enters the wall rather than what reaches the battery.
▸Does this include the cost of buying the car?
No. It is a running-cost comparison only — fuel, plus maintenance if you enter it. Purchase price, depreciation, insurance, tax credits and charger installation are all excluded and often matter more than the fuel.
▸How much does cold weather affect EV running costs?
A lot. Cabin heat comes out of the battery, so range in a cold winter can fall 20–40%, and cost per mile rises by the same proportion. Use a worse kWh/100 mi figure than the sticker if you drive somewhere cold.
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