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EV vs Petrol Running Cost Calculator

The sticker price is only half the story. An electric car costs more to buy and much less to run, and the question every buyer asks is how long the difference takes to pay back. This calculator answers it with your own numbers: kilometres a day, the EV's efficiency, the petrol car's mileage and today's fuel price.

How the maths works

Cost per km for petrol is the fuel price divided by the real-world mileage. For an EV it is the electricity rate divided by km per unit, plus a small allowance for charging losses. Multiply the gap by your monthly distance to get the monthly saving, then divide the price premium by that saving to get the payback period.

Two things move the answer more than anything else: how much you drive, and whether you can charge at home. Home charging on a domestic tariff is far cheaper than public fast charging — if you cannot charge at home, run the numbers again.

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