Gas vs Electric Car Calculator
Your miles, your prices, and the two cars
Your result will appear here
Fill in the fields on the left and this updates as you type.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- General mathematical model
- Scope and limitations
- Planning estimate only. Enter complete, current figures and keep an appropriate buffer for irregular or unexpected expenses.
- Source links checked
- Jul 30, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
How to use
- 01
Enter the miles you drive a year — everything on the page is a rate multiplied by it, and mileage is what decides whether cheaper miles can ever repay a dearer car.
- 02
Enter the gas car's real-world mpg and the EV's kWh per 100 miles. The EPA's model-year 2024 fleet average is 27.2 mpg; the Department of Energy puts current EVs at 25-40 kWh per 100 miles, so 30 is a defensible middle.
- 03
Set your charging mix: the share you do at public fast chargers and what they charge in cents per kWh. This is the input most EV comparisons quietly assume away, and it moves the answer more than anything except mileage.
- 04
Enter both cars' prices, any state or utility rebate, the extra you would pay to insure the EV, your state's EV registration surcharge, both maintenance figures and the cost of a home charger.
- 05
Check the federal clean-vehicle credit field. It opens at $0 because the section 30D credit ended for vehicles acquired after 30 September 2025 — that is the correct 2026 value, not an oversight.
Formula
Gasoline per mile = price per gallon ÷ mpg. Electricity per mile = (kWh per 100 miles ÷ 100) × the blended price per kWh, where the blend is your home rate and your public fast-charging rate weighted by the share you charge at each. Annual running-cost saving = fuel saving + maintenance saving − the extra EV insurance − the EV registration surcharge. Extra to get the EV on the road = the price gap − the federal credit − any state or utility rebate + the home charger. Break-even years = that upfront figure ÷ the annual saving; break-even miles = that upfront figure ÷ the per-mile saving.
Example
13,500 miles a year, a 27.2 mpg gas car at $42,000 against a 30 kWh/100mi EV at $56,126, charging 80% at home at 18.34c a kWh and 20% at public fast chargers at 45c, with $250 more a year of insurance, a $100 state EV surcharge, $1,656 and $1,000 of maintenance, a $1,200 home charger, no credit and no rebate. Gasoline costs 15.0c a mile, the EV 7.1c on a blended 23.67c a kWh — $2,021 against $959 a year, a fuel saving of $1,062. Add $656 of maintenance saving, subtract $250 of insurance and $100 of surcharge, and the running-cost saving is $1,368 a year. The EV costs $15,326 more to get on the road, so it breaks even at 11 years 2 months, or 194,856 miles — and after ten years it is still $1,648 behind. Charge entirely at home and the per-mile cost falls to 5.5c, which changes the answer completely.
Definitions
- kWh per 100 miles
- How much electricity an EV uses, and the EV equivalent of fuel consumption. The Department of Energy puts current models at 25-40; lower is better, which is the opposite of mpg.
- Blended charging rate
- Your home electricity price and your public fast-charging price, weighted by how much you do of each. Public fast charging can cost two to three times the home rate.
- Section 30D credit
- The federal new clean vehicle credit of up to $7,500. It ended for vehicles acquired after 30 September 2025 under Public Law 119-21, alongside the section 25E used-vehicle and section 45W commercial credits.
- EV registration surcharge
- An extra annual state registration fee levied on electric vehicles in place of gasoline tax. It varies by state and offsets part of the fuel saving.
- Break-even mileage
- The total miles of driving needed for the running-cost saving to repay the higher purchase price. A more useful figure than break-even years for anyone whose annual mileage is unusual.
Good to know
Two fuels, and the only unit that compares them
A gallon and a kilowatt-hour have nothing in common, which is why the EPA invented a conversion: 33.7 kWh of electricity carries the energy of one gallon of gasoline, and dividing miles by that gives MPGe. An electric car using 30 kWh per 100 miles rates about 112 MPGe. The number is honest as physics and useless as economics, because a gallon and 33.7 kWh do not cost remotely the same money — so MPGe tells you nothing whatever about your bill. Cents per mile is the only unit that answers the question. At $4.071 a gallon and the EPA's model-year 2024 fleet average of 27.2 mpg, gasoline runs 15.0 cents a mile. At 30 kWh per 100 miles and the EIA's June 2026 residential average of 18.34 cents a kWh, electricity runs 5.5 cents a mile charged entirely at home. At a public fast charger priced at 45 cents a kWh, the identical car costs 13.5 cents a mile — barely cheaper than gasoline. Blend those at a 20% public share and the effective rate is 23.67 cents a kWh and 7.1 cents a mile, which at 13,500 miles a year is $959 of electricity against $2,021 of gasoline. Two details are worth holding onto. The EPA's consumption rating is measured at the wall, so charging losses are already inside it; a car's own trip computer usually reports energy drawn from the battery, which is lower and will flatter the comparison. And the residential average is a national blend of tariffs that vary enormously — an overnight EV rate can be half of it and a summer peak tier double. The home rate is the largest lever in this comparison that the driver actually controls.
The price gap, and the credit that is no longer there
Cheaper miles only matter against a dearer car, and in 2026 that gap is wide: Cox Automotive put the average electric vehicle transaction at $56,126 in July 2026 against $49,855 across all new vehicles. On these defaults the gap is $14,126, and once a $1,200 home charger is added and no credit applies, $15,326 has to be repaid before a single dollar of fuel saving counts. That last clause is where most published comparisons are now simply wrong. A federal credit for new clean vehicles existed in some form from 2008 onward, and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 rebuilt section 30D around North American final assembly, critical-minerals and battery-component sourcing tests, MSRP caps and buyer income limits — then from 1 January 2024 allowed buyers to transfer it to the dealer at the point of sale, so it behaved like a discount rather than a refund a year later. It was legislated to run to the end of 2032. Public Law 119-21, enacted 4 July 2025, ended it seven years early: the IRS states the credit "will not be allowed for any vehicle acquired after September 30, 2025". The section 25E used-vehicle credit worth up to $4,000 and the section 45W commercial credit ended on the same date. One narrow exception survives — a written binding contract with a payment made on or before 30 September 2025. The size of what disappeared is the point: $7,500 was roughly half the purchase-price gap on these figures, so a comparison that still assumes it moves the break-even by years rather than months. What remains real is state and utility rebates, which vary by an order of magnitude between jurisdictions and are worth checking individually.
Roads are paid for at the pump, and an EV does not stop there
The registration surcharge many states now levy on electric vehicles looks arbitrary until you see what it replaces. Highways in the United States have been funded principally by fuel excise taxes: the federal levy is 18.4 cents a gallon and has not moved since 1993, so inflation has eroded more than half its real value, while state excise taxes range from under a dime a gallon to over sixty cents. None of it is collected from a car that never visits a pump. Put a number on it from these defaults. A gas car at 27.2 mpg driven 13,500 miles a year buys about 496 gallons and pays roughly $91 in federal fuel tax alone — and then roughly $50 more for every dime of state excise on top, so a state at thirty cents a gallon takes the total to about $240. Against that, a $100 annual EV surcharge is not a penalty conjured from nothing; in most states it is less than what the gasoline driver is already paying, collected once a year in a visible bill instead of invisibly at fifteen cents a mile. What makes it feel punitive is the visibility rather than the amount. Two things follow for anyone modelling a long ownership period. First, the amount is set state by state and ranges from nothing at all to several hundred dollars, with some states adding a tax on public charging by the kilowatt-hour on top, so a national average would be misleading. Second, the direction of travel is upward: as the fleet electrifies, the fuel-tax base shrinks and something has to replace it — surcharges now, and per-mile road usage charges already running as pilots in several states. This is a policy variable rather than a market price, which is why it belongs on its own line rather than being netted quietly into the fuel saving.
What a break-even cannot see
The largest number in this decision is not a running cost at all. iSeeCars' March 2026 study of more than 950,000 vehicles puts five-year depreciation at 57.2% for electric vehicles against a 41.8% average, 44.9% for SUVs, 35.4% for hybrids and 34.2% for trucks. On a $56,126 electric car, that fifteen-point gap is roughly $8,600 — several times the fuel saving over the same five years. If you sell at five years it is the entire decision; if you drive the car to the end of its life it barely registers. The mirror image is worth stating, because it is the strongest financial case in the whole subject: the steep curve that punishes the first owner makes a used electric car one of the cheapest vehicles per mile anyone can buy. Break-even mileage is the more useful of the two break-even figures for exactly this reason. On these defaults it is 194,856 miles, which a driver at 20,000 miles a year reaches inside a decade and a driver at 8,000 never reaches at all. The years figure hides that; the mileage figure does not. Three further things sit outside the arithmetic. The traction battery carries a federal minimum warranty of eight years or 100,000 miles, and degradation in most fleets is gradual rather than sudden — but an out-of-warranty pack is a tail risk with no exact equivalent, though the gasoline car has its own in the transmission, the turbocharger and the catalytic converter. Charging access is a housing question wearing a car costume: without a driveway the cost is 13.5 cents a mile and the case nearly vanishes. And gasoline is the most volatile input here, a weekly series currently some 28% above a year earlier, treated by any break-even as though it were a constant.
Frequently asked questions
Is the $7,500 federal EV tax credit still available?
No. The IRS states that the section 30D new clean vehicle credit "will not be allowed for any vehicle acquired after September 30, 2025". Public Law 119-21, enacted 4 July 2025, pulled forward a sunset the Inflation Reduction Act had set at the end of 2032. The section 25E used clean vehicle credit worth up to $4,000 and the section 45W commercial credit ended on the same date. A buyer with a written binding contract and a payment made on or before 30 September 2025 may still claim it, which is why the field is editable rather than removed.
How much cheaper is electricity per mile?
At the national averages, roughly two to three times. Gasoline at $4.071 a gallon and 27.2 mpg is 15.0c a mile. An EV at 30 kWh per 100 miles charged entirely at home at 18.34c a kWh is 5.5c a mile. Charge entirely at public fast chargers at 45c a kWh and the same EV costs 13.5c a mile — barely cheaper than gasoline. Where you charge decides most of the saving.
How long does an EV take to pay back its higher price?
On the defaults here, 11 years and 2 months — 194,856 miles of driving. The EV costs $15,326 more to get on the road once the home charger is counted and no credit applies, and saves $1,368 a year across fuel, maintenance, insurance and the registration surcharge combined. Whether that break-even matters depends entirely on whether you are still driving the car when it arrives.
Do EVs really cost less to maintain?
Usually yes, and this page makes you enter both figures rather than assuming a saving. There are no oil changes, no exhaust and no timing belt, and regenerative braking makes brake pads last far longer. Against that, tires wear faster under the extra weight, and out-of-warranty repairs concentrate in fewer, more expensive components. AAA's 2025 figure for a gas car's maintenance, repair and tires is $1,656 a year at 15,000 miles; the EV figure is your own estimate.
What does this comparison miss?
Depreciation, which is the largest cost in the whole decision. iSeeCars' March 2026 study puts five-year depreciation at 57.2% for electric vehicles against a 41.8% average, 44.9% for SUVs and 34.2% for trucks. On a $56,000 EV that fifteen-point gap is around $8,600 — several times the fuel saving over the same five years. If you sell at five years it is the whole decision; if you drive the car to the end of its life it barely matters.
Why do the fuel and electricity prices go stale so fast?
Because they are published on completely different cadences. Gasoline is a WEEKLY EIA series — the $4.071 default is the week ending 31 August 2026, about 28% above a year earlier — so it is wrong within days. Residential electricity is monthly with roughly a two-month lag; the 18.34c default is the June 2026 US average, up 5.0% year on year. Both are fields, and both should be re-read rather than trusted.
What is the EV registration surcharge?
A growing number of states levy an extra annual registration fee on electric vehicles, on the reasoning that EV drivers pay no gasoline tax toward road maintenance. The amount is set state by state and is a genuine offset against the fuel saving, so it has its own field here rather than being buried in the running-cost figure.