EV vs Gas Savings Calculator
An electric car is cheaper to run than a gas car in almost every state, and more expensive to buy in most of them. Which of those two facts wins depends on your miles, your gas price, your electricity rate and how long you keep the car. This EV vs gas savings calculator runs the full comparison: fuel and maintenance for both cars, the EV purchase price, any incentive, and the year the running savings finally repay the purchase premium.
Enter your gas car’s MPG and fuel price, your miles per year, your home and fast charging rates and how much you charge at home, and the EV’s efficiency in Wh/mi. Size presets cover compact sedans through large SUVs, and if you are pricing a specific car, the EPA table further down maps real models, including the Tesla Model 3 range that many readers land here looking for, onto those presets. Calculator Zilo is not affiliated with Tesla or any car maker named on this page.
Estimates only. Assumes constant fuel, electricity, and maintenance costs; ignores resale value, insurance differences, and financing. Charging loss of 10% included in EV energy math.
Quick Answer
In the worked example pre-filled above, the EV saves $2,000.00 a year in fuel and maintenance ($950.00 a year to run against $2,950.00 for the gas car), but that does not repay a $36,000 purchase price inside 10 years: net lifetime savings are -$16,000.00, and the breakeven pace is year 18. Drop the EV price to $25,000 and keep it 15 years, and the same running costs end $5,000.00 ahead, breakeven in year 13. The purchase price and your annual miles decide this comparison, not the fuel saving alone.
Key takeaways
- Running savings are real but modest: $1,400 to $3,100 a year across the scenarios below, set by miles, gas price and charging mix.
- The tool counts the full EV purchase price as the premium to repay, so cheaper and used EVs break even years earlier than new ones.
- Charging loss is included: you pay for wall energy, about 11% more than the battery receives at the tool's 10% loss figure.
- Federal purchase credits are gone for 2026 buyers, so the incentive field is for state, local and utility money only.
- Quick Answer
- How to run your own EV vs gas comparison
- The worked example, line by line
- Six scenarios: what actually moves the answer
- Finding your EV's efficiency, including the Tesla models readers ask about
- Incentives in 2026: the federal credit is gone
- What this comparison leaves out, on purpose
- What competing calculators miss
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Add This Calculator to Your Website
- References
How to run your own EV vs gas comparison
Four steps get you a number you can trust. The order matters, because the two inputs people guess at, annual miles and the home electricity rate, move the answer more than any others.
Start from your real gas car. Enter its actual MPG and what you pay per gallon. A 25 MPG car at $3.75 spends $0.15 a mile on fuel before maintenance; a 35 MPG car spends about $0.107, and the EV case gets harder to make.
Use your real annual miles. Take last year's odometer change, not your commute times 52. Savings scale almost linearly with miles, which is why the 25,000-mile scenario below saves half as much again as the 15,000-mile one.
Price electricity the way you will actually charge. Divide a home bill by its kWh for the home rate, set your home charging share honestly, and let the tool blend in the fast charging rate for the rest.
Enter the full EV price, then read the breakeven year. Net lifetime savings tell you where you end up; the breakeven year tells you whether you get there while you still own the car. For a single trip rather than a year of driving, the cost per 100 miles calculator prices the same miles one journey at a time.
The worked example, line by line
The calculator is pre-filled with this case, and every figure below is what it returns. Gas car: 25 MPG, $3.75 a gallon, $700 a year maintenance. EV: 250 Wh/mi, $36,000 purchase price, $300 a year maintenance, 90% home charging at $0.14/kWh and 10% fast charging at $0.30/kWh. Both driven 15,000 miles a year for 10 years, no incentive.
| Line | Gas car | EV |
|---|---|---|
| Energy cost per mile | $0.1500 (fuel only) | $0.0433 (wall energy at the $0.156 blended rate) |
| Maintenance per mile | $0.0467 | $0.0200 |
| Total cost per mile | $0.1967 | $0.0633 |
| Cost per year | $2,950.00 | $950.00 |
| 10-year running total | $29,500.00 | $9,500.00 |
| Purchase price counted | $0 (car already owned) | $36,000.00 |
| 10-year total | $29,500.00 | $45,500.00 |
The formulas: Gas $/mi = gas price / MPG + gas maintenance / miles. EV $/mi = (Wh/mi / 1000 / 0.9) x blended $/kWh + EV maintenance / miles, where the blended rate = home share x home rate + fast share x fast rate, and 0.9 applies the 10% charging loss. Net lifetime savings = gas total - (EV running total + price - incentive). Breakeven year = the first year where annual savings x years reaches the price minus incentive.
The running-cost gap is not subtle: the EV costs about a third as much per year to fuel and maintain in this example. The comparison is lost or won at the purchase line, which is exactly why tools that stop at annual fuel savings mislead. If your driving is mostly a daily commute, the commute expense calculator breaks the same miles down by trip and week.
Six scenarios: what actually moves the answer
Miles, purchase price, incentives and charging mix move the result; small rate changes do not. Every row below was run through the calculator above, changing only the inputs named.
| Scenario | Savings per year | Net over the window | Breakeven |
|---|---|---|---|
| Worked example: 15,000 mi/yr, $36,000 EV, 10 years | $2,000.00 | -$16,000.00 | Beyond 10 years (year 18 pace) |
| Same, but 100% home charging | $2,066.67 | -$15,333.33 | Beyond 10 years |
| Same, but 0% home charging (all fast charging) | $1,400.00 | -$22,000.00 | Beyond 10 years |
| High mileage: 25,000 mi/yr, 10 years | $3,066.67 | -$5,333.33 | Beyond 10 years |
| High mileage, kept 15 years | $3,066.67 | +$10,000.00 | Year 12 |
| Used EV at $25,000, 15,000 mi/yr, 15 years | $2,000.00 | +$5,000.00 | Year 13 |
| High mileage plus a $7,500 incentive, 10 years | $3,066.67 | +$2,166.67 | Year 10 |
Two patterns are worth naming. First, charging mix is worth about $667 a year between the all-home and all-fast extremes at these rates, which is real money but smaller than the mileage effect. Second, no realistic running-cost scenario repays a $36,000 purchase inside 10 years at 15,000 miles a year. The wins come from buying the EV cheaper, driving it more, or keeping it longer. That is consistent with the wider data: in AAA's 2025 Your Driving Costs study, EVs had lower fuel and maintenance costs than gas cars but higher ownership costs overall, and AAA's fuel figure for gas cars averaged 13.00 cents per mile against the $0.1967 total running cost per mile in the worked example here.
At today's national prices the picture barely shifts. Re-running the worked example with AAA's $4.26 gas average, the EIA's 18.31 cent residential rate and a $36,990 EV price (the 2026 Tesla Model 3 Standard's list price on FuelEconomy.gov) gives $2,144.75 a year of savings and a net of -$15,542.50 over 10 years. Higher gas prices help the EV case; higher electricity prices and a higher purchase price take most of it back.
Finding your EV's efficiency, including the Tesla models readers ask about
The presets are size classes, not brands, because Wh/mi is a property of the car's size and shape more than its badge. A compact electric sedan from any maker lands near 250 Wh/mi; a large electric SUV lands near 300. Your car's own energy screen beats any preset: use its lifetime average if you have one.
| Preset | Wh/mi | kWh per 100 miles | Miles per kWh | Annual running cost at the worked example rates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compact sedan | 250 | 25.0 | 4.00 | $950.00/yr (saves $2,000.00) |
| Crossover SUV | 270 | 27.0 | 3.70 | $1,002.00/yr (saves $1,948.00) |
| Large sedan | 280 | 28.0 | 3.57 | $1,028.00/yr (saves $1,922.00) |
| Large SUV | 300 | 30.0 | 3.33 | $1,080.00/yr (saves $1,870.00) |
Tesla searchers land on this page often, so here is the honest mapping. FuelEconomy.gov, the DOE and EPA fuel economy site, lists the 2026 Tesla Model 3 at 24 kWh per 100 miles for the Standard RWD, 25 for the Premium RWD and 26 for the Premium AWD: 240 to 260 Wh/mi, squarely on the compact sedan preset. The Model Y sits near the crossover preset, and the Model S and Model X near the large sedan and large SUV presets. Those are EPA ratings, and real-world figures run higher in winter and at motorway speeds, so enter your car's measured average when you can. If you already own the EV and only need its running cost per mile rather than a purchase comparison, the EV cost per mile calculator isolates exactly that figure, with insurance included. This page is not affiliated with Tesla, and Tesla's own site remains the source for its current prices and specifications.
Incentives in 2026: the federal credit is gone
Any 2026 comparison has to start from the current rules, because several older calculators still promise money that no longer exists. According to the IRS, the new clean vehicle credit, the previously owned clean vehicle credit and the commercial clean vehicle credit are not available for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025. A buyer who signed a binding contract and made a payment by that date can still qualify on later delivery; everyone else cannot.
What remains is state, local and utility money, which varies from nothing to several thousand dollars depending on where you live. Enter only an incentive you have confirmed you qualify for. The scenario table shows why the field still matters: a $7,500 incentive, the old federal amount and still the scale of the largest state programs, pulls the high-mileage case from -$5,333.33 to +$2,166.67 over 10 years and brings breakeven into the window at year 10.
What this comparison leaves out, on purpose
Four real costs sit outside this tool, and pretending otherwise would flatter the EV side. Insurance is the biggest: some EVs cost more to insure than a comparable gas car, and the gap can eat a noticeable share of the fuel saving, so price it with the car insurance cost per month calculator before you decide. Depreciation and resale value are excluded because both sides are hard to forecast honestly; EVs have historically lost value faster, which works against them here. Financing is excluded because it depends on your loan, not the cars. And a home charger installation, typically a one-time four-figure cost, belongs in the purchase price field if you want it counted in the breakeven year.
Maintenance, by contrast, is inside the tool because the gap is structural. The US Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels Data Center notes that all-electric vehicles need less maintenance than conventional cars: fewer fluids to change, far fewer moving parts, and brake wear significantly reduced by regenerative braking. The pre-filled $700 against $300 reflects that, but both fields are editable, because a gas car under a service plan and an EV on expensive tyres can narrow the gap quickly.
What competing calculators miss
Most EV savings tools make one of four compromises. The fuel-only tools stop at annual energy savings and never touch the purchase price, which is the line that decides the comparison. The fixed-maintenance tools hard-code a per-mile maintenance figure, often 10 cents for gas and 7 cents for EVs, and give you no way to enter your own service costs. The no-charging-loss tools price the energy the battery receives rather than the energy you pay for at the wall, understating electricity cost by about a tenth. And a surprising number still present the $7,500 federal credit as available, a full year after the IRS closed it to new purchases. This page takes the other side of each trade: full purchase price and incentive as separate inputs, editable maintenance for both cars, 10% charging loss built into the EV math, a blended home and fast charging rate, and a breakeven year reported honestly, including when the answer is beyond your ownership window.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends mostly on your miles, your gas price and your electricity rate. In the worked example on this page, a 25 MPG gas car at $3.75 a gallon against an EV at 250 Wh/mi and a $0.156 blended rate, the saving is $2,000.00 a year in fuel and maintenance. High-mileage drivers save more: at 25,000 miles a year the same rates save $3,066.67 a year.
The breakeven year is the year when your cumulative fuel and maintenance savings catch up with the EV purchase premium, meaning the price minus any incentive. Annual savings tell you the EV is cheaper to run; the breakeven year tells you when it becomes cheaper overall. In the worked example the $36,000 premium at $2,000 a year of savings breaks even in year 18, outside a 10-year ownership window.
Because at those inputs it is the honest answer. The EV saves $2,000 a year running, but $20,000 of savings over 10 years does not repay a $36,000 purchase price, so the net lifetime figure is -$16,000.00. Lower EV prices change this fast: the same example with a $25,000 EV kept for 15 years ends $5,000.00 ahead, breakeven in year 13.
Use the preset closest to your car, or your own figure from the car's Energy screen. The compact sedan preset is 250 Wh/mi and the crossover SUV preset is 270 Wh/mi. For reference, FuelEconomy.gov lists the 2026 Tesla Model 3 at 24, 25 or 26 kWh per 100 miles for the Standard and Premium trims, which is 240 to 260 Wh/mi, so the 250 preset sits right in the EPA band. This page is not affiliated with Tesla.
Yes, by roughly a tenth of your electricity bill. FuelEconomy.gov puts battery charging efficiency at about 84% to 93%, so part of the energy you pay for never reaches the battery. This calculator divides by 0.9, so a car using 250 Wh/mi from the battery is charged for 277.8 Wh/mi from the wall.
Home charging, by a wide margin in most states. The EIA put the US residential average at 18.31 cents per kWh in July 2026, and AAA's 2025 Your Driving Costs study used 16.7 cents per kWh for EV charging. DC fast charging commonly runs two to three times the home rate, which is why the worked example at 0% home charging saves only $1,400.00 a year against $2,066.67 at 100% home charging.
Not at the federal level. The IRS states the new, used and commercial clean vehicle credits are not available for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025. State, local and utility incentives still exist in many places, and any of those can go in the incentive field: in the scenario table, a $7,500 incentive pulls the high-mileage case to breakeven in year 10.
Insurance, depreciation and resale value, financing costs, and one-time home charger installation. Those are real costs, and insurance in particular can run higher for some EVs. The comparison here is fuel, maintenance and purchase price only, stated plainly so you can add the other lines yourself.
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References
- US Department of Energy and US Environmental Protection Agency, FuelEconomy.gov, "All-Electric Vehicles" - EV efficiency and maintenance advantages, and battery charging efficiency of about 84% to 93% behind this calculator's 10% charging loss figure. FuelEconomy.gov: All-Electric Vehicles. Accessed October 21, 2026.
- US Energy Information Administration, "Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A: Average Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers by End-Use Sector, by State" - US residential average of 18.31 cents per kWh, July 2026. EIA: Electric Power Monthly Table 5.6.A. Accessed October 21, 2026.
- AAA, "AAA Fuel Prices" - national average price of regular gasoline, $4.2644 per gallon as of October 21, 2026. AAA: Fuel Prices. Accessed October 21, 2026.
- AAA Newsroom, "AAA: New Vehicle Costs Drop to $11,577" (Your Driving Costs 2025) - average fuel cost of 13.00 cents per mile, EV charging priced at 16.7 cents per kWh, and EVs showing lower operating costs but higher ownership costs than gas vehicles. AAA Newsroom: Your Driving Costs 2025. Accessed October 21, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service, "Credits for New Clean Vehicles Purchased in 2023 or After" - the new clean vehicle credit is not available for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025, with the same cutoff for the used and commercial credits. IRS: Credits for New Clean Vehicles. Accessed October 21, 2026.
- US Department of Energy, Alternative Fuels Data Center, "Maintenance and Safety of Electric Vehicles" - all-electric vehicles require less maintenance due to fewer fluids, fewer moving parts and regenerative braking. AFDC: Maintenance and Safety of Electric Vehicles. Accessed October 21, 2026.
- US Department of Energy and US Environmental Protection Agency, FuelEconomy.gov vehicle listing, "2026 Tesla Model 3" - EPA ratings of 24 kWh per 100 miles (Standard RWD), 25 (Premium RWD) and 26 (Premium AWD), and a $36,990 list price for the Standard. FuelEconomy.gov: 2026 Tesla Model 3. Accessed October 21, 2026.
- US Department of Energy, Alternative Fuels Data Center, "Electricity" - the federal hub for EV charging basics, vehicle information and the Laws and Incentives lookup for the state and local incentives that remain after the federal credits ended. AFDC: Electricity. Accessed October 21, 2026.