Vehicle EconomicsEV vs Gas Cost Calculator
Does an EV actually cost less than a comparable gas car once financing, depreciation, and charging are all counted?
Why this comes up
An EV's per-mile energy cost is usually lower than gas, but the purchase price and financing are often higher, and that shows up as real interest paid before any fuel savings offset it. This engine runs the full comparison, purchase, financing, depreciation, and energy, over your actual horizon, rather than comparing sticker prices or per-mile fuel cost in isolation.
How we calculated this
Each option's total cost is real amortization financing interest, plus your entered annual depreciation, plus energy cost (gas or electricity), plus insurance, maintenance, and repairs, summed over your horizon. The break-even year sweeps year 1 through 15 to find the first year cumulative EV cost drops to or below cumulative gas cost.
Worked example, using this page's own defaults: over 12 years the EV totals$97,945 against $107,214 for gas, an EV advantage of$9,269. Gas is actually cheaper in the early years, the EV doesn't pull ahead until year 7, once enough cumulative energy savings offset its higher financing cost.
What this means
- A break-even year past your typical ownership horizon means the EV may not actually pay off for you, check the year against how long you actually plan to keep the car.
- Financing terms move this result as much as the sticker price does, a shorter, cheaper loan on either option changes the crossover year.
- See EV Home Charging Cost to isolate just the energy assumption, or Hybrid vs Gas Calculator if a hybrid is a closer real alternative than a full EV.
Limitations
Depreciation is your own flat annual planning estimate for each vehicle, not a forecast; actual EV and gas resale value can diverge from a straight-line assumption. No current gas or electricity price is assumed. See Methodology.
Methodology
This engine combines Vehicle Economics' fixed-rate amortization model (the standard loan-payment formula run out as a full month-by-month schedule), equity and depreciation projection model (your value and loan payoff projected forward from your own depreciation figure until they cross), ownership total cost model (every ownership cost, depreciation, financing, fuel, insurance, maintenance, repairs, and fees, summed over your horizon), fuel and charging cost model (your own miles, MPG or kWh, and rates converted directly to a dollar cost), and break-even search model (a closed-form solve where one exists, otherwise a bounded search over a stated plausible range). See Methodology for the full detail.