True Cost of Driving: ICE vs EV
Buying a new car is one of the largest financial decisions most households make, and the sticker price is only part of the story. Over a typical 10-year ownership period, fuel and maintenance often add up to more than half of the total cost of ownership. That's where the EV-vs-gas comparison gets interesting. An electric vehicle eliminates roughly 90% of moving parts in the powertrain, has no oil to change, no exhaust to repair, and uses regenerative braking to triple the life of friction brake pads. Combined with electricity rates that are often less than a third of gasoline on a per-mile basis, the operating cost gap is the real story.
This calculator does an honest, no-cherry-picking comparison. You enter your real annual miles, your actual gas price, your actual electricity rate, and your real EV efficiency (kWh per mile — not the EPA window-sticker number). It produces annual fuel cost for both vehicles, cumulative cost over 5/10/N years, the gallons of gasoline you'd avoid, CO2 saved with your local grid's carbon intensity, and a breakeven year if the EV carries a price premium. It also calls out the cases where EVs don't pay off — heavy DC fast-charge dependence, very low annual miles, or extreme luxury pricing without an ICE comparison. We'd rather give you the truth than oversell.