EV vs Petrol Running Cost Calculator Trending

Switching from a petrol or diesel car to an electric vehicle can save a meaningful amount on fuel, road tax and maintenance. Electricity is cheaper per mile than petrol: a typical EV costs 4 to 7p per mile to run on home charging against 16 to 22p per mile for a petrol car with petrol at £1.72 a litre, the UK average in the week commencing 21 September 2026 (DESNZ). Road tax is no longer part of the saving: since April 2025 electric cars pay Vehicle Excise Duty too, and most pay the same £200 standard rate in 2026/27 as a petrol car.

Maintenance is lower because there is less to go wrong. An electric car has no clutch, exhaust system, cambelt or conventional gearbox to service, and regenerative braking means the pads wear more slowly. Annual servicing typically costs £100 to £200 less than an equivalent petrol car. Tyres are the exception, since EVs are heavier and can wear them faster. Batteries lose about 1 to 2% of capacity a year and carry a standard warranty of 8 years or 100k miles; a replacement outside warranty costs £8,000 to £25,000 or more, but outright failure in a modern EV under ten years old is rare.

This calculator compares the yearly running cost of an EV with a petrol car: fuel against a mix of home and public charging, road tax and a £200 servicing saving, with a five-year total and the CO2 difference. Purchase price, insurance and eVED are left for you to add. At its defaults of 10,000 miles a year, 40 mpg and petrol at £1.72 a litre, the fuel saving is about £950 a year, there is no road tax saving now that electric cars pay the same £200 standard rate as petrol (since April 2025), and servicing saves £200, a five-year running-cost saving of roughly £5,800. From April 2028 electric cars also pay eVED at 3p a mile, £300 a year at 10,000 miles, and if insurance costs £150 a year more than for the petrol car, the net five-year saving is about £4,150.

Higher mileage widens the gap quickly. At 12,000 miles a year a petrol car doing 40 mpg at £1.72 a litre burns 1,364 litres and costs £2,346 in fuel. The same distance in an EV managing 4 miles per kWh needs 3,000 kWh, which on an 8p off-peak rate costs £240. That is £2,106 of fuel saving before anything else, and once £200 of lower servicing is added the driver ends up about £2,300 a year better off, or about £1,950 from April 2028, when eVED adds £360 a year at that mileage.

Where you plug in decides whether those savings appear at all. An off-peak home tariff such as Octopus Go at 7.5p or EDF Go Electric at 9p is the cheapest electricity you will find, filling a 60 kWh battery for £4.50 to £5.40, about 2p a mile. Charging at a standard home rate of 24 to 28p costs £14 to £17 for the same battery, roughly 7p a mile. Public rapid chargers at 60 to 80p per kWh cost £36 to £48 a fill, about 15 to 20p a mile, which is no cheaper than petrol. Workplace charging, where an employer offers it, is often free or subsidised.

The purchase premium is what the savings have to repay. A £35,000 EV against a £25,000 petrol equivalent starts £10k behind, and at £2,000 a year of savings it breaks even in year five. Depreciation is broadly comparable in real terms, though battery health worries make resale less predictable, and Tesla and Polestar have held value better than the VW ID range or the Renault Zoe. Used EVs at two or three years old often sit 40 to 50% below their original list price, which is the cheapest way in. Where an employer offers salary sacrifice, the tax treatment can make an EV cost less than a petrol equivalent from day one.

Public charging has grown to roughly 70,000 chargers across the UK in 2026, with a target of 300,000 by 2030, and more than 24,000 locations offer rapid charging at 50 kW or above through BP Pulse, Pod Point, Ionity, Tesla Supercharger, which is now open to all, Gridserve, Osprey and InstaVolt. Fitting a home charger costs £900 to £1,200, since the OZEV grant closed to homeowners in March 2022, though renters and flat owners can still apply. Businesses can claim £350 per socket under the Workplace Charging Scheme. In practice more than 90% of EV journeys are covered by home charging, with the rapid network reserved for longer trips.