Fuel Cost & EV-vs-Gas Calculators
Fuel is the ownership cost you feel most often and control the most. These tools turn your real mileage, local gas and electricity prices, and a car’s efficiency into an annual cost — and tell you whether an EV’s higher price pays for itself.
Compare the running cost of an electric car and a gas car, and find the break-even year when the EV’s higher price pays for itself.
Open calculatorCalculate what fuel costs you per year and per month from your mileage, MPG and gas price — and compare a gas car against a hybrid.
Open calculatorEnergy cost is about efficiency and price, not fuel type
What you spend to move a car is miles divided by efficiency, times the price of the energy. Electricity is usually far cheaper per mile than gasoline because EVs are efficient and a kilowatt-hour costs less than the gasoline that does the same work — but the gap depends entirely on your local prices and how much you drive.
The honest comparison runs your own numbers: your annual mileage, the gas price and electricity rate where you live, and each car’s real efficiency. A short commute in a cheap-gas, expensive-power state looks very different from a long commute where the reverse is true.
The EV break-even is a price gap divided by yearly savings
An EV often costs more up front and less to run. Whether it comes out ahead is simply the price gap divided by the annual savings — the number of years before the cheaper running cost pays back the higher price. Drive a lot and that happens fast; drive a little and it may never happen.
One accuracy note: the federal clean-vehicle tax credit (up to $7,500 new, $4,000 used) ended for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025. Do not assume it applies to a purchase today — the only incentives left are state and utility programs, which vary widely.