EV Total Cost of Ownership Calculator

Total cost of ownership is every dollar you spend on a vehicle minus what you get back when you sell it: purchase price, depreciation (the value you lose), fuel, insurance, maintenance, and any one-time cost like a home charger. It is the number that tells you what owning a car really costs per year or per mile, instead of just the monthly payment. This EV ownership cost calculator covers all six categories for both the EV and the gas car side, so you get a genuine comparison rather than fuel savings shown in isolation.

An EV usually costs more to buy and loses value faster, but it is cheaper to fuel and maintain. A gas (ICE) car costs less upfront and holds its value a bit better, but you pay more at the pump and in the shop every year. Which one wins on total cost of ownership depends mainly on three things: how many miles you drive a year, your local electricity rate, and how long you keep the vehicle. High-mileage drivers in low-electricity states tend to favor the EV; low-mileage drivers in expensive-electricity states often favor the gas car.

Yes, currently, though exact figures vary by source and by model mix. iSeeCars 2026 data reports the average EV loses roughly 49% of its value over 5 years versus about 40% for a comparable gas car; this calculator's own depreciation-rate sliders use separate KBB category averages (14 to 17%/yr EV, 11 to 14%/yr gas, compounded annually) and won't land on exactly the same 5-year figures. The main reasons EVs depreciate faster are aggressive price cuts on new EVs that drag used values down, fast model refreshes that make older EVs feel outdated quickly, and buyers pricing in battery replacement risk. The KBB Equinox EV lost $22,924 over 5 years; a comparable gas Equinox lost about $17,500. Depreciation has been stabilizing as EV supply adjusts, and high-demand models like the Tesla Model 3 and Ioniq 6 hold value better than the average.

It matters, but it's a one-time cost that gets spread across years of ownership. A typical Level 2 install (charger plus electrician) runs $400 to $1,500. At $800 over 5 years that's $160 a year, much smaller than the fuel or maintenance gap. The 30C federal tax credit for EV charger installation (Form 8911) was not repealed and is still available, worth up to $1,000 back (30% of cost). If you live in a multi-unit building without home charging access, your cost profile changes a lot, since you'd rely more on public charging at higher per-kWh rates.

At national averages (12,000 mi/yr, $0.1765/kWh, $3.20/gal, an $11,000 price premium), the break-even on cumulative total cost now lands around 15 to 20 years, and often falls outside a typical 3-10 year ownership window entirely, since there's no federal credit left to offset the EV's price premium. High-mileage drivers (18,000+ mi/yr) in cheap-electricity states such as North Dakota or Louisiana, especially when compared with a less fuel-efficient gas vehicle, can still break even in roughly 3 to 5 years. Low-mileage drivers in expensive-electricity states like Hawaii or California may never break even on pure total cost of ownership. State rebates can shorten the timeline meaningfully, for example Colorado's roughly $5,000 rebate or California's and Oregon's up to $7,500, effectively restoring some of what the federal credit used to cover. The break-even point moved much later in 2026 compared with 2024 because the $7,500 federal credit is gone, though state rebates in Colorado, California, and Oregon partly offset that.

The structure is the same as any total cost of car ownership calculator (purchase price, depreciation, fuel, insurance, maintenance), with one addition: a home charger install line, since that's a real cost an EV buyer has that a gas buyer doesn't. Everything else runs on the same logic you'd use to compare two gas cars, just applied to an EV versus an ICE vehicle side by side.