Electric Vehicle Savings Calculator
An electric car saves you money because electricity per mile costs far less than gas (petrol), and EVs need less maintenance. Pick your country, enter your driving and prices, and see your yearly fuel saving, cost per mile, CO₂ cut and total savings over time.
This electric car savings calculator compares a gas (petrol) car with an electric vehicle — even a specific model like a Tesla — and shows how much you save on fuel, cost per mile, running costs and maintenance, with presets for the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, Austria and the UAE. The wording switches between “gas” and “petrol” to match your country.
How much can you save with an electric car?
Switching from gas or petrol to electric saves money in two big ways: fuel and maintenance. This calculator works out both:
- Fuel vs energy — it prices the gas car's yearly fuel (your distance ÷ fuel economy × fuel price) against the EV's yearly electricity (distance ÷ efficiency × electricity price). Because a mile of electricity is usually far cheaper than a mile of gas, the gap is large.
- Maintenance — EVs have far fewer moving parts, no oil changes and less brake wear, so they typically cost less to service. We add an editable yearly maintenance saving on top.
The result shows your saving per year, the cost per mile or km for each car, the CO₂ you avoid, and your total saving over 1, 3, 5 or 10 years.
Why EVs are so cheap to run
The magic is in the cost per mile. A gas car doing 30 mpg on $3.30 fuel costs about 11 cents a mile just for gas. An EV doing 3.5 miles per kWh on 17¢ electricity costs under 5 cents a mile — less than half. Charge at home overnight on an off-peak or EV tariff and it can drop below 2 cents a mile.
Three things make the biggest difference to your savings:
- Your electricity price — home charging is far cheaper than public rapid chargers, and off-peak tariffs cheaper still.
- How far you drive — the more miles, the bigger the yearly saving, because every mile is cheaper.
- The gas or petrol car you're replacing — swapping a thirsty car magnifies the gap.
EV savings around the world
Savings depend heavily on where you live, because fuel and electricity prices differ enormously. The calculator has presets with local units and typical prices for:
- United States & Canada — cheap electricity and moderate fuel make EVs comfortably cheaper per mile; Canada's clean, low-cost grid also means very low CO₂.
- United Kingdom, Germany & Austria — high petrol prices mean big fuel savings, though electricity is dearer, so home and off-peak charging matter most.
- Australia — high fuel prices and lots of driving make the yearly saving large; rooftop solar makes charging almost free for many.
- United Arab Emirates (Dubai) — petrol is cheaper than in Europe, but low electricity prices still make an EV cheaper to run per kilometre.
Every figure is editable, so you can set your exact local prices — or model anywhere in the world. Charging from your own roof? Pair this with the solar panel savings calculator to see the combined payback.
Tesla gas savings: Model 3 and Model Y examples
Tesla is the most-searched EV and one of the most efficient, so its gas savings are large. Because the calculator lets you set any efficiency, you can build a Tesla gas savings estimate in seconds — just enter the model's miles per kWh. Here's how two popular Teslas compare with a similar gas car over 12,000 miles a year, at about $3.50 a gallon and 17¢ per kWh:
| Tesla (vs gas car) | Efficiency | Electric / yr | Gas / yr | Fuel saving / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model 3 (vs 30 MPG sedan) | ~4.0 mi/kWh | ~$510 | ~$1,400 | ~$890 |
| Model Y (vs 26 MPG SUV) | ~3.5 mi/kWh | ~$583 | ~$1,615 | ~$1,030 |
Add the EV's lower maintenance (often $300–500 a year) and the yearly total passes $1,200–1,400 — roughly $6,000–7,000 over five years. Real-world Model 3 and Model Y efficiency runs about 3.5–4.5 mi/kWh depending on trim, wheels and weather. A Nissan Leaf, Chevy or any other EV works the same way — just enter its number.
Electric car MPG and MPGe explained
Electric cars don't burn gallons, so instead of MPG they're rated in MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent) or miles per kWh. The EPA sets one gallon of gas equal to 33.7 kWh of electricity, so the conversion is simple:
MPGe from miles per kWh
- A typical EV at 3.5 mi/kWh ≈ 118 MPGe; an efficient one at 4.0 mi/kWh ≈ 135 MPGe.
- Compare that with 25–30 MPG for an average gas car — the EV uses far less energy per mile.
One catch: MPGe measures energy, not cost. A 120 MPGe EV isn't automatically cheaper than gas — that depends on your electricity price versus the pump price. The calculator above turns both into a real cost per mile so you can see the money difference, not just the energy one.
How much does it cost to charge an electric car?
Charging cost is easy to estimate: it's roughly the energy you add (kWh) times your electricity price, plus about 10% for charging losses. A full charge is about the car's battery size in kWh × price per kWh.
- At home — a 60 kWh EV at 17¢/kWh is about $10–11 for a full charge and 200+ miles, only a few cents a mile. Overnight or off-peak EV tariffs cut this further.
- Public rapid charging — far pricier, often around 42¢/kWh on US DC fast chargers (UK rapid can top £0.75/kWh), so the same charge is about $25. Handy on trips, expensive as a habit.
To reflect real charging in the savings calculator, use your home price for mostly-home charging, or a blended price if you often use public chargers — and nudge the electricity price up about 10% to cover losses.
What does an electric car cost per month?
Split the yearly numbers into a monthly view and the gap is easy to feel. Charging a typical EV at home costs most drivers about $30–60 a month, versus roughly $120–180 a month to fuel a comparable gas car — so many households save around $70–120 a month on energy alone, before lower maintenance.
- Home charging — at about 3.5 mi/kWh and 17¢/kWh, 12,000 miles a year works out near $50 a month.
- Gas equivalent — a 30 MPG car at $3.50 a gallon over the same miles is about $115 a month.
- Maintenance — EVs typically cost 35–50% less to service (no oil changes, less brake wear), often another $30–60 a month saved.
Set the calculator's distance selector to per day or keep it yearly, then divide the yearly saving by 12 for your own monthly figure. Prices and driving vary, so edit the inputs to match your life.
Is an electric car worth it? Payback and incentives
An EV usually costs more up front but less to run, so the real question is how long the running-cost saving takes to repay the price difference. A quick way to estimate the EV payback:
Rough payback in years
- New EVs in 2026 cost roughly $5,000–10,000 more than a comparable gas car (the gap is narrowing, and a used EV can erase it).
- At a yearly saving of $1,000–1,500 from the calculator, that's about a 4–8 year payback — sooner if you drive a lot or fuel is dear.
About incentives (2026): the US federal $7,500 new-EV and $4,000 used-EV tax credits ended for vehicles bought after 30 September 2025 under the 2025 tax law, so most 2026 buyers won't get them — but some state and local utility rebates still apply, so check yours. This calculator focuses on the running-cost saving you bank every year; it doesn't include the purchase price or incentives.
What most EV calculators leave out
Most online EV calculators — even big, well-known ones — quietly assume perfect, cheap home charging and stop there. Here are four real-world factors they skip, so you can adjust the figures above and get a genuinely honest answer.
- Charging losses (about 10–15%). The mi/kWh (or kWh/100km) on a car's spec sheet is energy measured at the battery. Getting it there through a home charger is only about 85–90% efficient, so you actually pay for roughly 10–15% more electricity than the rated number suggests. To be realistic, nudge your electricity price up about 10% — or your EV efficiency down about 10%.
- Home vs public charging. Charging at home is the cheap case almost every calculator assumes. Public chargers cost far more — commonly around 1.5× for public AC and 2–3× for DC rapid charging (the US public average is about $0.42/kWh versus roughly $0.17 at home, and UK rapid charging can top £0.75/kWh). If you often charge away from home, enter a blended price that reflects how much you use each.
- Winter uses more — on both sides. In cold weather an EV can lose 20–30% of its range to cabin and battery heating, but a petrol or gas car also drops about 15% (up to ~24% on short trips). Neither is immune, so if you live somewhere cold, expect higher yearly energy use for both cars, which keeps the gap closer to what the calculator shows.
- Batteries age slowly. An EV battery loses roughly 2% of its capacity a year on average, so efficiency drifts down a little over a decade — worth a small allowance if you keep your cars a long time.
The honest takeaway: even after charging losses and the occasional pricey public charge, a home-charged EV is still usually far cheaper per mile than petrol or gas. These factors trim the saving; they rarely erase it. Unlike most tools, the calculator above lets you test every one of them — just edit the electricity price or efficiency to match your real situation.
The savings formula
No black box — here is exactly how the yearly saving is worked out.
Yearly running-cost saving
- Gas / petrol cost — fuel used (distance ÷ economy) × price per gallon or litre
- Electric cost — energy used (distance ÷ efficiency) × price per kWh
- Cost per mile/km — each car's yearly cost ÷ distance
- CO₂ avoided — petrol tailpipe CO₂ − the CO₂ from generating the EV's electricity
How to use it & key terms
Pick your country, enter your driving distance and your fuel and electricity prices, then press Calculate for your yearly savings, cost per mile and CO₂ cut.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| mi/kWh | Miles an EV travels per kilowatt-hour of electricity — its efficiency. |
| MPGe | Miles per gallon equivalent; mi/kWh × 33.7. |
| kWh | A unit of electricity; charging cost is kWh used × price. |
| Cost per mile | Each car's yearly running cost divided by the miles driven. |
| Charging losses | The roughly 10–15% extra electricity lost charging the battery. |
| Off-peak tariff | A cheaper overnight electricity rate for charging. |
| CO₂ avoided | Tailpipe emissions saved minus the grid emissions of charging. |
Sources & methodology
The gas or petrol car's yearly cost is fuel used (distance divided by fuel economy) multiplied by fuel price; the electric car's is energy used (distance divided by efficiency) multiplied by electricity price. Cost per mile or km is each car's yearly cost divided by distance. CO₂ avoided is the gas car's tailpipe emissions (about 2.31 kg per litre of fuel) minus the emissions from generating the EV's electricity, using an average grid intensity for each country. Country presets set local units, currency and approximate 2026 prices, and every value is editable.
Sources: Published residential electricity and retail fuel price averages (2026); standard fuel-economy and tailpipe-emission arithmetic; national average grid carbon-intensity figures. Prices are approximate and change often — edit them to your own.
Use your car's real efficiency, not the sticker figure
Of everything you type into an electric-car calculator, one number moves the result more than any other: efficiency, shown as miles per kWh or kWh per 100 km. It decides how much electricity each journey needs, and therefore the whole running-cost side of the comparison. The trouble is that the headline figure on a brochure or window sticker is a laboratory result, measured under gentle, controlled conditions. Your own driving will rarely match it. Speed, terrain, load, tyres, weather and the way you use the accelerator all pull the real figure away from the lab one — usually a little lower, sometimes a lot — so an estimate built on the sticker number tends to flatter the car.
Electric cars also behave differently from petrol ones, which trips up people used to fuel economy. A combustion engine is thirstiest crawling through town and most efficient cruising on the open road; an EV is the reverse. At steady highway speed, aerodynamic drag rises sharply and efficiency falls, while stop-start city driving lets regenerative braking recover energy and often returns more miles per kWh. Hills, roof boxes, a full load of passengers and towing all raise consumption, and cold weather does too, because energy goes to warming the cabin and battery. None of this makes an EV expensive to run — it simply means the figure you should plug in depends on the kind of driving you actually do.
The fix is to stop guessing and read your own numbers. Almost every EV shows a lifetime average efficiency on its dashboard or companion app — the miles per kWh or kWh per 100 km it has really achieved across months of your driving. That single figure, entered above, turns a generic estimate into one built on how and where you drive. Do the same on the cost side: take the price per kWh from your latest electricity bill rather than a national average, since tariffs vary widely. With your true efficiency and your true rate in place, the running-cost and payback results stop being a brochure promise and start describing your car.
- Highway miles — drag lowers efficiency; enter a lower figure for lots of motorway driving.
- City miles — regenerative braking often lifts it.
- Your dashboard — the lifetime average is the most honest number to use.
Frequently asked questions
How much can I save with an electric car?
It depends on how far you drive and your local gas (petrol) and electricity prices, but most drivers save several hundred to over a thousand a year on fuel alone, plus lower maintenance. Enter your details to see your figure.
How is the saving calculated?
We take your annual distance and work out the gas car's yearly fuel cost (distance ÷ fuel economy × fuel price) and the electric car's yearly energy cost (distance ÷ efficiency × electricity price). The saving is the difference, plus your lower EV maintenance.
Is an electric car really cheaper than gas?
Almost always, yes. Electricity per mile or km is usually far lower than gas or petrol, especially when you charge at home on a standard or off-peak tariff. The calculator shows the cost per mile for each so you can see the gap.
Does this work for gas cars and petrol cars?
Yes — it does both. Choose your country and it automatically says “gas” and uses MPG and gallons for the US and Canada, or switches to “petrol”, litres and L/100km (or MPG) for the UK, Europe, Australia and the UAE. Whatever fuel is called where you live, the maths is the same.
Which countries does this cover?
It has ready-made presets for the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Austria and the United Arab Emirates, each with local units, currency and typical prices. You can edit every figure, so it works anywhere.
What electricity price should I use?
Use your home electricity price per kWh from a recent bill. If you charge overnight on an EV or off-peak tariff, use that lower rate — it can roughly halve your charging cost and increase your savings.
Do electric cars cost less to maintain?
Generally yes. EVs have far fewer moving parts than a gas car, no oil changes, no exhaust or spark plugs, and less brake wear thanks to regenerative braking. The calculator includes an editable yearly maintenance saving so you can add this to your total.
What is the cost per mile of an EV versus gas?
An EV often costs around a quarter to a third of gas or petrol's cost per mile — for example 4 to 6 cents or pence a mile versus 12 to 18. The calculator shows both for your own inputs.
Does this include the price of the car?
No. It compares the running costs — fuel or energy plus maintenance — not the purchase price. Sticker prices, incentives and resale value vary widely, so we focus on the ongoing savings you get every year you drive.
How accurate are the CO₂ figures?
They are an estimate. We take the tailpipe CO₂ the gas car would emit and subtract the emissions from generating your electricity, using an average grid figure for your country. Real grid emissions vary, and green tariffs or home solar make the EV even cleaner.
Are the default prices up to date?
They are approximate 2026 averages for each country and are fully editable. Gas, petrol and electricity prices change often and vary by region and tariff, so for an exact result replace them with your own local prices.
Do EV savings calculators include charging losses?
Most don't — and it matters. The efficiency on a car's spec sheet is measured at the battery, but home charging is only about 85–90% efficient, so you actually pay for roughly 10–15% more electricity. For a realistic result, raise the electricity price about 10% (or lower the EV efficiency by 10%) in the calculator above.
Is it cheaper to charge an EV at home or at public chargers?
Home is much cheaper — usually the cheapest energy you can buy for a car. Public charging often costs around 1.5× more on AC and 2–3× more on DC rapid chargers (the US public average is about $0.42/kWh versus roughly $0.17 at home). If you rely on public charging, enter a blended electricity price to reflect it.
How much does a Tesla save on gas?
A Tesla is very efficient, so the gas savings are large. A Model 3 (~4 mi/kWh) or Model Y (~3.5 mi/kWh) driven 12,000 miles a year costs roughly $510–580 in electricity at 17¢/kWh, versus about $1,400–1,600 in gas for a comparable 26–30 MPG car — a fuel saving of about $900–1,050 a year, plus lower maintenance. Enter your Tesla's efficiency and your own prices for an exact figure.
What is MPGe and how does it compare to MPG?
MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent) shows how far an electric car goes on the energy in one gallon of gas, which the EPA sets at 33.7 kWh. Multiply an EV's miles per kWh by 33.7 to get MPGe — so 3.5 mi/kWh is about 118 MPGe and 4 mi/kWh is about 135 MPGe, versus 25–30 MPG for a typical gas car. MPGe measures energy, not cost, so your actual saving depends on your electricity price versus the gas price.
How much does it cost to charge an electric car at home?
A full home charge costs about the battery size (kWh) times your electricity price, plus roughly 10% for charging losses. A 60 kWh EV at 17¢/kWh is about $11 for 200+ miles, only a few cents a mile. Public rapid charging costs far more — often around 42¢/kWh in the US — so about $25 for the same charge.
What is the payback period on an electric car?
Take the extra you pay for the EV over a comparable gas car (often about $5,000–10,000 new in 2026) and divide by your yearly running-cost saving from the calculator (commonly $1,000–1,500). That's roughly a 4–8 year payback — sooner if you drive a lot or fuel is expensive. This tool shows the running-cost saving, not the purchase price.
Is there still a $7,500 EV tax credit in 2026?
No. The federal $7,500 new-EV and $4,000 used-EV tax credits ended for vehicles bought after 30 September 2025 under the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, so they're not available to new buyers in 2026. Some state and local utility rebates still exist, so check yours. This calculator compares running costs and doesn't include purchase incentives.
How much does it cost to charge an EV per month?
Charging a typical EV at home costs most drivers about $30–60 a month, versus roughly $120–180 a month to fuel a comparable gas car. At about 3.5 mi/kWh and 17¢/kWh, 12,000 miles a year is near $50 a month of electricity; public rapid charging costs more, so a blended price is higher.
Do electric cars save money in the long run?
For most drivers, yes — lower fuel and maintenance commonly save over $1,000 a year and several thousand over five years, usually outweighing a higher purchase price, especially with home charging. Two honest caveats: EVs can cost a little more to insure, and their tyres can wear faster because of the extra weight and instant torque.
How much do electric cars save on maintenance?
EVs typically cost about 35–50% less to maintain than a comparable gas car — often $300–500 a year versus $900–1,500 — because there are no oil changes, no spark plugs or exhaust, and less brake wear thanks to regenerative braking. The calculator includes an editable yearly maintenance saving.
How many miles per kWh is good for an electric car?
About 3–4 mi/kWh is typical. Over 4 is efficient (a small or aerodynamic EV), while under 3 is thirsty (a large SUV or truck, or cold weather and fast highway driving). Higher miles per kWh means lower cost per mile, so enter your car's real figure for an accurate saving.