What it does
Electric cars cost more to buy and less to run. This page puts numbers on that for your own driving: you enter what each vehicle costs, how far you drive and what energy costs, and it adds up the total cost of owning each one for the years you plan to keep it. A hybrid column is there as a third option and can be switched off.
It also finds the break-even point, the number of years of driving after which the electric car has saved back its higher price, and gives a rough CO2 figure per year. To add loan interest see car loan, for a detailed petrol trip see fuel cost, and for your home charging bill see electricity cost.
How to use it
- Fill in the price, rebate, fuel use, upkeep, insurance and resale for each vehicle.
- Enter the kilometres a year, the years you keep the car, the petrol price and your electricity prices.
- Say what share of charging is at home; public fast charging usually costs more.
What each setting does
- Incentive: any purchase rebate or tax credit you actually qualify for.
- Litres per 100 km / kWh per 100 km: from the sticker. Real use is higher in winter.
- Resale value: the share of the price you expect to get back at the end.
- Grid CO2: how much CO2 your electricity makes per kWh; the tailpipe figure for petrol is fixed.
Worked example
Over 8 years at 15,000 km a year, the example petrol car costs 55,360 in total, the hybrid 51,000 and the electric car 46,778. The electric car costs 8,000 more up front but 1,623 less each year to run, so it breaks even after about 4.9 years.
FAQs
Why is the total different from my loan payments? This is the cost of ownership, not the loan. Interest, if you borrow, is extra.
Are the defaults real? No. They are examples; replace them with real quotes.
Is the CO2 complete? No. It leaves out making the car and the battery, and the fuel’s own supply chain.
Where the numbers come from
- Total cost of ownership = price minus incentive, plus yearly energy, upkeep and insurance for each year, minus the resale value at the end. Loan interest is not included.
- CO2: petrol 8.887 kg per US gallon, about 2.35 kg per litre (US EPA, epa.gov greenhouse gas equivalencies, checked 2026-11-10). Electricity: the start value 0.4 kg per kWh is close to the US average of 0.39 kg (EPA eGRID); grids in Canada, the UK, India and the Gulf differ and change yearly, so check your own grid's figure at the official source.
- Incentives, rebates and taxes differ by country and year; check the official source.
Standard scientific values, such as constants, atomic weights and melting points, are facts found in every textbook; we name where ours were checked. If you are an author or publisher and want a value, a credit or a table changed or removed, tell us and we will act quickly.
Last updated 2026-11-10.