EV Savings Calculator

Enter your annual miles, your local gas and electricity prices, and both vehicles' efficiency. You get the two fuel bills side by side, per year and per mile, a five-year savings line, and the honest CO2 ledger with your grid's emissions counted.

Miles driven per year (FHWA puts the average US driver near 13,500)

Gas price per gallon ($4.10 is the AAA national average as of August 2026)

Gas car fuel economy (mpg) (27 is the EPA real-world average for a recent model year)

EV energy use (kWh per mile) (0.29 is typical; a Model 3 sits near 0.24, a big electric truck near 0.5)

Electricity price per kWh ($0.18 is the home average; public DC fast charging runs 2 to 3 times home rates, off-peak EV plans run lower)

Grid powering the charger

Custom grid intensity (lb CO2 per kWh) (optional, overrides the pick above)

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Data reviewed: August 2026. Figures here come from published sources and change over time. How we verify

How the EV savings calculator works

Comparing a gas car to an electric one by the sticker price of a fill-up versus a charge tells you almost nothing, because a tank and a battery hold different amounts of driving. The honest unit is cost per mile: what one mile of motion costs you at the pump versus at the meter. Everything on this page reduces to it. You enter your annual miles, your local prices, and how efficient each vehicle is, and we run the two fuel bills side by side, per year and per mile, then hold prices flat for a disclosed five-year line.

The second half of the answer is emissions, and we count both sides of that ledger too. The tailpipe CO2 the gas car emits is fixed chemistry: 8,887 grams per gallon, no matter how well tuned the engine is. The EV eliminates all of it and adds back the CO2 your grid emits to make the charging electricity, which is not zero and depends heavily on where you live. This page uses the same EPA eGRID figures as our electric semi page, so the two can never quote you different grids. That page owns the freight story; this one owns your driveway.

The formula

gallons = miles ÷ mpg, gas cost = gallons × price per gallon
kWh = miles × kWh per mile, charging cost = kWh × price per kWh
savings = gas cost − charging cost
tailpipe CO2 = gallons × 8,887 g per gallon
grid CO2 = kWh × grid lb CO2 per kWh
net CO2 cut = tailpipe eliminated − grid added

Miles is your annual driving. Mpg is the gas car's real-world figure (the EPA average for a recent model year is about 27, and the window sticker is usually optimistic). kWh per mile is the EV's consumption; the window sticker states it as kWh per 100 miles, so divide by 100. Prices are yours: the defaults are the August 2026 national averages, and both are the numbers to change first, because yours are not average.

Worked example

12,000 miles a year at the August 2026 national averages ($4.10 gasoline, $0.18 per kWh at home): a 27 mpg gas car against an EV using 0.29 kWh per mile on the US average grid.

Gas: 12,000 ÷ 27 = 444.4 gallons × $4.10 = $1,822.22 a year, or 15.2 cents a mile. Charging: 12,000 × 0.29 = 3,480 kWh × $0.18 = $626.40 a year, or 5.2 cents a mile. Fuel savings: $1,195.82 a year, about $5,979.11 over five years at flat prices. Put another way, a dollar of gasoline moves this car about 6.6 miles and a dollar of electricity moves the EV about 19.2, so the same dollar goes 2.9 times as far.

Emissions: 444.4 gallons × 8,887 g = 3.9 metric tons of tailpipe CO2 eliminated; 3,480 kWh × 0.77 lb per kWh = 1.2 metric tons of grid CO2 added; net 2.7 metric tons cut, a 69.3% reduction, about the CO2 sequestered by 46 tree seedlings grown for 10 years. Switch the grid to California and the cut climbs to 3.3 tons (82.9%). Switch it to the coal-heavy Midwest grid and it shrinks to 2.0 tons (50.5%) but does not disappear: gasoline is simply that carbon-intense per mile. The fuel money does not move at all, because the savings live at your meter, not at the power plant.

The gas station and the meter

Here is the mental model that makes EV economics click. A gas station sells you miles at a retail markup that includes the station, the tanker truck, the refinery, and the crude. Your electric meter sells you miles at close to the utility's delivered rate, and at the August 2026 averages that same dollar moves the EV nearly three times as far. On a cheap overnight EV rate (many utilities sell one at 10 to 12 cents), the multiple stretches to four and beyond. That gap, compounded over every mile you drive, is the whole financial case, and it is why the boring question "where will you plug in" matters more than any spec sheet.

Because here is the part EV pages tend to hide: home charging is the whole game. Public DC fast charging averaged roughly 45 to 53 cents per kWh in 2026, two to three times the home rate. Run our defaults at 47 cents and the EV's fuel cost jumps to $1,635.60 a year, 13.6 cents a mile against gasoline's 15.2. The savings collapse from $1,195.82 to $186.62. An EV charged only at public fast chargers approaches gas-car money per mile, full stop. If you can plug in at home (or free at work), the math on this page is yours; if you cannot, enter the fast-charger rate you would actually pay and let the calculator tell you the truth.

What this page deliberately leaves out

An honest estimator names its edges. Purchase price, depreciation, insurance, and maintenance are not in this math. This page prices fuel and emissions only; a total-cost-of-ownership comparison is a different and bigger question, and pretending one number answers it would be doing you a disservice. Maintenance generally runs lower on an EV (no oil changes, regenerative braking spares the pads), but it varies too much by model and driver to average honestly into a single figure, so we do not. Battery replacement fear deserves one evidence-based sentence: fleet telematics covering thousands of vehicles (Geotab's battery health studies) put average capacity loss at roughly 1.8 to 2.3 percent a year, which means most modern packs outlast the loan and usually the vehicle. Winter is real: Recurrent's study of more than 18,000 EVs found an average range loss around 20 percent at freezing temperatures (heat pumps help), and lost range is really extra consumption, so a cold-climate cost per mile runs higher in January than in July. And one sentence of good news the ledger cannot show: the gas car's emissions per mile are fixed for life, while the grid gets cleaner every year, so the EV's emissions side of this page quietly improves after you buy it.

Sources

Where the numbers on this page come from. We go to the body that publishes the figure, not to another calculator. Figures on this page were checked against these sources in August 2026. See how we verify.

Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator, Calculations and References, US EPA. The fixed-chemistry 8,887 grams of CO2 per gallon of gasoline, and the equivalency factors: 4.29 metric tons CO2e per typical passenger car per year and 0.060 metric ton per tree seedling grown for 10 years.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle, US EPA. Corroborates the gasoline figure (about 8,887 grams of CO2 per gallon, roughly 400 grams per mile for a typical vehicle) and traces it to the joint EPA and DOT rulemaking that fixed the factor.
National average gas prices, AAA. The $4.10 default: AAA's national average for regular gasoline as of August 1, 2026.
Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update, US Energy Information Administration. Corroborates the gas price: EIA's weekly national average for regular reached $4.096 per gallon on July 27, 2026.
Electric Power Monthly, US Energy Information Administration. The $0.18 per kWh default: US residential electricity averaged about 18 cents per kWh in mid 2026 (17.9 cents year-to-date in early 2026 and rising), corroborated by state-rate trackers built on the same data.
eGRID Summary Data, 2023 data (Rev 2, June 2025), US EPA. Grid CO2 rates used here: US average 767.2 lb per MWh, California (CAMX) 428.5, Texas (ERCT) 733.9, coal-heavy Midwest (SRMW) 1,239.8. Identical by design to the figures on our EV semi emissions page, and a test enforces the match.
The Automotive Trends Report, US EPA. The 27 mpg default: EPA's real-world average for model year 2024 new vehicles was a record 27.2 mpg, corroborated by the Department of Energy's Fact of the Week series. Older vehicles on the road average less, which is why the field is editable.
Find and Compare Cars, fueleconomy.gov (US DOE and EPA). EV consumption ratings behind the 0.29 kWh per mile default: a Tesla Model 3 rates near 24 to 25 kWh per 100 miles, a Model Y Long Range about 27.6, and large electric trucks approach 50. Window stickers state kWh per 100 miles; divide by 100.
Winter EV range loss study, Recurrent. Analysis of more than 18,000 real-world EVs: average range loss around 20 percent at freezing temperatures, with heat-pump models retaining meaningfully more than resistive-heat models.
EV Battery Health: Key Findings from Vehicle Data Analysis, Geotab. Fleet telematics on thousands of EVs: average battery capacity loss of about 1.8 percent per year in the 2024 study, with newer data running closer to 2.3 percent as fast charging grows. Either way, most modern packs outlast the loan.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to charge an EV at home?

At the mid-2026 US residential average of about 18 cents per kWh, filling a typical 70 kWh battery from near empty costs around $12.60, and a year of driving 12,000 miles at 0.29 kWh per mile costs about $626. That works out to roughly 5 cents a mile. Your utility's rate is the number that matters, and many utilities sell an overnight EV rate at 10 to 12 cents that cuts these figures nearly in half.

Is charging an EV cheaper than gas?

At home, yes, and by a wide margin: at August 2026 national averages a dollar of electricity moves a typical EV nearly three times as far as a dollar of gasoline moves a 27 mpg car, about 5 cents a mile versus 15. At public DC fast chargers the answer changes: at 45 to 53 cents per kWh, charging costs approach gas-car money per mile. Where you plug in decides the answer, which is why this calculator lets you enter your actual rate.

Are EVs really cleaner than gas cars?

On fuel emissions, yes, on every major US grid, because this page counts the grid honestly and the EV still wins. Burning a gallon of gasoline makes 8,887 grams of CO2 by fixed chemistry, and even on the coal-heavy Midwest grid our worked example still cuts CO2 by about half. On the US average grid the cut is closer to 70 percent, and in California over 80. Battery manufacturing is a real one-time carbon cost outside this per-mile page; lifecycle studies consistently find the EV ahead over its working life.

How much does public DC fast charging cost?

Around 45 to 53 cents per kWh in 2026, two to three times the home rate, and some networks add per-minute or peak-hour fees on top. Run this calculator at 47 cents and a typical EV costs 13.6 cents a mile against a 27 mpg gas car's 15.2, so the fuel advantage nearly disappears. Fast charging is priced for road trips and emergencies, not as your daily fuel.

Do EV batteries wear out quickly?

The data says no. Geotab's fleet telemetry across thousands of vehicles measured average capacity loss of about 1.8 percent per year in its 2024 study, with newer data closer to 2.3 percent as fast charging grows. At those rates a pack still holds most of its capacity past the decade mark, which means most modern batteries outlast the loan and usually the vehicle. Replacement horror stories exist, but they are the exception the warranty was written for, not the average.

How much range do EVs lose in winter?

Around 20 percent at freezing temperatures on average, per Recurrent's analysis of more than 18,000 real-world EVs, with a wide spread by model: heat-pump cars do meaningfully better than resistive-heat cars. Lost range is really extra consumption, so in a cold climate your kWh per mile and your cost per mile both run higher in January than in July. The gas car pays a winter penalty too, just a smaller one.

Does this calculator include purchase price or maintenance?

No, deliberately. This page prices fuel and emissions only. Purchase price, depreciation, insurance, and maintenance belong to a total-cost-of-ownership comparison, which is a different and bigger question than one number can honestly answer. Maintenance generally runs lower on an EV, no oil changes and less brake wear, but it varies too much by model to average into a single defensible figure, so we tell you that instead of inventing one.

What is a good kWh per mile for an EV?

Efficient sedans like the Tesla Model 3 sit near 0.24 to 0.25 kWh per mile, most modern crossovers land between 0.27 and 0.30, and big electric trucks approach 0.5. The EPA window sticker states consumption as kWh per 100 miles, so divide by 100: a sticker that says 29 kWh per 100 miles is 0.29 here. Real-world driving, speed, and weather all push the number up, so if you know your car's actual figure, use it.