EV vs Gas Cost Comparator
Compare the cost per mile of a gas vehicle against an electric vehicle, side by side. Enter your own fuel economy, efficiency, and prices for an accurate result, the fields below start with sensible defaults.
Gas vehicle
This is an estimated default price. Enter your local price for a more accurate result.
Electric vehicle
This is a national average estimate, not your regional price. Enter your own rate for a more accurate result.
Cost per mile
- Gas vehicle
- $0.050 per mile
- Electric vehicle
- $0.058 per mile
The gas vehicle is cheaper to run at these prices, by $0.008 per mile, $0.81 per 100 miles, or roughly $122 a year at 15,000 miles.
About this comparison
A gas vehicle's cost per mile is simply its price per gallon divided by its MPG. An electric vehicle's cost per mile works the same way once its efficiency is expressed as energy used per distance: kWh per 100 miles times the price per kWh, divided by 100. The two run on differently priced fuels, so cost per mile, not MPG versus MPGe, is the fair way to compare what each will actually cost you to drive.
The electricity price defaults to $0.19 per kWh, a national average estimate, not a regional one. Residential electricity prices vary significantly by state and utility, so enter your own rate for an accurate result.
What the numbers don't include
This comparator covers fuel and electricity cost per mile only, which is genuinely the biggest ongoing cost difference between a gas and electric vehicle, but not the only one. Electric vehicles typically need meaningfully less scheduled maintenance, since there's no engine oil, exhaust system, or traditional transmission to service, and regenerative braking reduces brake wear. On the other side of the ledger, EVs usually carry a higher purchase price than a comparable gas vehicle, though a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 is available on many new EVs and can meaningfully close that gap.
How you charge changes the result more than almost anything else. Charging at home overnight, often on a discounted off-peak utility rate, is where most of an EV's cost advantage comes from. Relying mainly on public DC fast chargers, which commonly price electricity at two to three times a typical home rate, can shrink or even erase that advantage, so be honest with yourself about how much of your charging will actually happen at home versus on the road.
Frequently asked questions
Usually, per mile, yes. A gas vehicle getting around 28 MPG typically costs 12 to 15 cents per mile in fuel at recent national average prices, while charging an EV at home typically costs a third to half that per mile, since electricity is both cheaper per unit of energy and used far more efficiently by an electric motor. Over a full ownership period this commonly adds up to $6,000 to $12,000 in fuel and maintenance savings versus a comparable gas vehicle, though the exact gap depends heavily on your local electricity and gas prices.
Significantly. Public DC fast chargers commonly price electricity at 30 to 45 cents per kWh or more, two to three times a typical home electricity rate, which can push an EV's cost per mile close to or even above a fuel efficient gas vehicle's. The comparator above lets you enter your own electricity price specifically so you can see how your actual mix of home and public charging changes the result.
Generally yes, sticker price for sticker price, though the gap has been narrowing and a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 is available on many new EVs, in some cases applied directly at the dealership rather than waiting for tax season. This calculator covers only the ongoing cost per mile to drive, not the purchase price gap, so weigh both together for a full picture.
Yes, meaningfully less. An electric motor has far fewer moving parts than a combustion engine, no oil changes, no exhaust system, and no transmission in the traditional sense, and regenerative braking reduces brake pad wear. Real world data commonly shows EVs needing 31 to 50% less scheduled maintenance spending than a comparable gas vehicle over the same number of miles.
The comparator starts at $0.19 per kWh, a national residential average estimate, not a regional one. Residential electricity rates vary significantly by state and even by utility within a state, more than gasoline prices typically do, so entering your own rate from a recent bill will give a meaningfully more accurate result than the default.
For most mainstream EVs, no, not within a typical ownership period. Battery replacement in the first 8 to 10 years is rare for modern EVs, and most manufacturers back the battery with an 8 year or 100,000 mile warranty at minimum, so it's a smaller practical risk than it's sometimes assumed to be when cross shopping against a gas vehicle.
MPG and MPGe both measure energy efficiency, but gasoline and electricity are priced completely independently of each other, so a straight efficiency comparison doesn't tell you what either vehicle will actually cost to drive. Cost per mile fixes that by converting both fuel economy and price into the same dollar unit, which is exactly what this comparator does instead of just placing an MPG number next to an MPGe number.