Compare the annual fuel cost of driving an electric vehicle versus a gas-powered car, based on your driving distance and local fuel and electricity prices.
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Deciding whether an electric vehicle actually saves money to drive compared to a gas car depends on two pairs of numbers: how much energy each vehicle consumes per distance traveled, and how much that energy costs where you live. A gas car's consumption is usually expressed in liters per 100 km, and a local fuel price per liter; an EV's consumption is usually expressed in kilowatt-hours per 100 km, and a local electricity price per kWh. This tool takes both pairs of numbers, computes the cost per 100 km for each vehicle type, scales that up by your actual annual driving distance, and shows you which one is cheaper to run over a year and by how much. It's a straightforward, currency-agnostic comparison: enter your own local fuel and electricity prices and your own vehicle's real consumption figures, and the tool works the same whether you're comparing costs in dollars, riyals, pounds, or any other currency, since it simply multiplies the numbers you provide rather than assuming any specific market's prices.
One of the most common questions people ask when considering an electric vehicle is simple: will it actually be cheaper to drive than the gas car it would replace? The honest answer is "it depends on your local prices," but the underlying math needed to answer it for your own situation is straightforward once you have four numbers: your gas car's consumption rate, your local fuel price, your (or a candidate EV's) energy consumption rate, and your local electricity price.
Gas and electricity are sold in different units — fuel by the liter (or gallon), electricity by the kilowatt-hour — so a direct price comparison isn't meaningful on its own; a liter of gasoline costing more than a kWh of electricity doesn't tell you which is cheaper to drive with, because a liter and a kWh don't carry the same car the same distance. What actually matters is the cost per unit of distance traveled, which requires combining the price with each vehicle's consumption rate: liters (or kWh) consumed per 100 km, multiplied by the price per liter (or per kWh), gives a genuinely comparable cost-per-100-km figure for each vehicle.
Electric vehicles are usually, though not universally, cheaper to drive on a pure energy-cost basis. This is mostly because electric motors convert a much higher share of their input energy into actual forward motion than internal combustion engines do, which lose a large portion of fuel's energy as waste heat. That efficiency advantage means an EV typically needs far less energy, in dollar or currency terms, to cover the same distance as a comparable gas car — but the size of that advantage, or whether it exists at all, depends heavily on local fuel and electricity prices, which vary enormously by country, region, and even time of day.
Charging location and timing matter a great deal to the real-world result. Home charging overnight, often on a discounted off-peak residential electricity rate, is typically the cheapest way to power an EV and usually produces the largest savings versus gas. Relying mainly on public fast chargers, which often charge a premium price per kWh for the convenience and speed, can significantly narrow or even eliminate the cost advantage over a gas car — so it's worth entering the electricity price that actually reflects your typical charging habits rather than an optimistic best-case number.
It's also worth being clear about what this comparison does not capture: it looks only at the ongoing energy cost of driving a given distance, not the vehicle's purchase price, any applicable incentives or taxes, financing costs, insurance premiums, routine maintenance (which is often lower for EVs, since they have fewer moving parts and no oil changes), or long-term battery degradation and replacement cost. Those factors matter for a full cost-of-ownership decision, but the running energy cost calculated here is the piece that changes every single time you drive, making it a genuinely useful number to know regardless of what the other factors ultimately add up to.
Most electric cars consume roughly 15-20 kWh per 100 km (about 150-200 Wh per km) under mixed driving conditions, though this varies by vehicle size, driving speed, and weather — check your EV's window sticker, manual, or trip computer for its specific rated or observed consumption.
No — enter whichever electricity price applies to how you actually charge; home charging on an off-peak overnight rate is usually much cheaper than public fast charging, so your real-world savings will be higher if you mostly charge at home and lower if you rely on paid public fast chargers.
No — this compares only the ongoing per-distance energy/fuel cost, not the vehicle's purchase price, financing, insurance, maintenance, or depreciation, all of which also differ between gas and electric vehicles and affect the true total cost of ownership.
Because that's how each is actually sold and billed — fuel by the liter and electricity by the kilowatt-hour — so entering your local price for each, in your own currency, lets the calculator compute a fair cost-per-distance comparison between the two.
Usually per-distance energy cost favors electric vehicles, since electricity is typically cheaper per unit of useful energy delivered to the wheels than gasoline, but this depends entirely on your local electricity and fuel prices — in places with very cheap fuel or expensive electricity, the gap can shrink or even reverse.