Gas at nearly $4.50 a gallon makes everyone do the same quick sum: a charge costs a fraction of a fill-up, so an electric car must pay for itself. Is an electric car worth it, then? Per mile, the answer is a clear yes when you charge at home. Per month, against the car already in your driveway, the answer is often no, and sometimes an emphatic yes. What decides it is not the price of gas. It is the monthly payment on each side.
Is an electric car worth it? Start with the cost of a mile
The part of the comparison everyone gets right is the fuel. Take a gas car that gets 25 mpg. At the EIA’s national average of $4.478 a gallon, each mile burns about 17.9 cents of gas. Now take an electric car rated at 30 kWh per 100 miles, a typical figure on fueleconomy.gov labels for compact and mid-size models. Charged at home at the U.S. residential average of 18.34 cents per kWh, the latest monthly figure published by the EIA (EIA), each mile costs about 5.5 cents.
Public charging changes that picture. AAA’s national average for public chargers was 42 cents per kWh on September 17, 2026, which puts the same mile at 12.6 cents: still cheaper than gas, but by much less.
| Where the energy comes from | Price | Cost per 100 miles |
|---|---|---|
| Home charging, U.S. average | 18.34¢ per kWh | $5.50 |
| 80% home, 20% public | mixed | $6.92 |
| Public chargers, AAA average | 42¢ per kWh | $12.60 |
| Regular gas, 25 mpg | $4.478 per gallon | $17.91 |
Home charging is not a detail; it is the whole advantage. A driver who charges mostly in public keeps less than a third of the fuel saving a home charger would give. And the price of home electricity varies a great deal by state: the EIA’s June 2026 figures range from about 13 cents per kWh in the cheapest states to more than 50 in Hawaii, which the calculator takes into account.
Upkeep: the line that tips the per-mile comparison further
The second per-mile line is maintenance, and it also favors the EV. Argonne National Laboratory, in a total cost of ownership study for the Department of Energy, estimated scheduled maintenance at 10.1 cents a mile for a gas light-duty vehicle and 6.1 cents for a battery-electric one (Argonne, via OSTI). The EV has no engine oil, no spark plugs, no timing belt, and its regenerative braking spares the brake pads.
Put both lines together and the running cost gap, with 80% home charging, is about 15 cents a mile: 28 cents for the gas car, 13 for the EV. At 1,125 miles a month, close to the national average for a driver, that is about $169 a month in favor of the electric car. So far, so simple.
The payment changes everything
Here is the part the quick sum leaves out. A car does not only cost what it burns. It costs what you pay to have it, and that is where the comparison is won or lost.
Take the most common situation: your current car is paid off. Its monthly cost is only gas and upkeep, about $315 at 1,125 miles. The EV, bought on a loan or leased, carries a payment. At $400 a month, its total comes to about $546 with charging and upkeep. The EV costs $231 more every month, even though every one of its miles is cheaper.
To make up a $400 payment with a 15-cent saving per mile, you would need to drive about 2,670 miles a month, 32,000 a year: more than twice the average. This curve shows the two monthly totals as the miles go up.
Chart
Paid-off gas car vs EV at $400 a month
Monthly cost with gas at $4.478, 25 mpg, EV at 30 kWh/100 mi charged 80% at home, Argonne upkeep rates.
The lines cross between 2,500 and 3,000 miles a month. Below that, which is where nearly everyone drives, the paid-off car wins. The break-even mileage moves with the payment:
| EV monthly payment | Break-even vs paid-off car | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| $250 | about 1,670 miles a month | about 20,000 miles |
| $300 | about 2,000 miles a month | about 24,000 miles |
| $400 | about 2,670 miles a month | about 32,000 miles |
| $500 | about 3,340 miles a month | about 40,000 miles |
And it moves with gas. At $3.50 a gallon instead of $4.48, the per-mile gap shrinks to about 11 cents, and the $400 EV needs about 3,600 miles a month to break even. High gas prices help the EV, but not nearly enough to erase a payment.
If your current car is still being paid for, the answer flips
Now take the other case. Your current car has a $450 loan payment. Its monthly cost is $450 plus gas and upkeep: about $765 at 1,125 miles. The $400 EV, at about $546 all in, is $219 a month cheaper, $2,600 a year. If your current car is leased at $400, it costs about $715 a month, and the EV saves about $169.
That is the situation where an electric car is clearly worth it: when you are comparing a payment with a payment, the per-mile saving is pure gain. It is also the situation of anyone whose current car needs replacing. If you are going to take on a payment anyway, the question is no longer “EV or my paid-off car” but “EV or another gas car”, and on that question the 15 cents a mile are all yours.
Your own numbers
Set your car’s status, the miles you really drive each month, and your state. The gas and electricity prices fill in from the EIA; change them if you know your own rate.
Mr Deal's calculator
Your current car or an EV: which costs less per month?
Enter the miles you really drive each month, not an estimate. Gas and electricity prices are your state's official averages; change them if you know yours.
Your car today is…
The electric car
Upkeep: Argonne National Laboratory, total cost of ownership study for the U.S. Department of Energy (2021), scheduled maintenance at 10.1 cents per mile for a gas car and 6.1 for a battery-electric one. Fuel and electricity: U.S. Energy Information Administration averages for your state. Charger installation, taxes and incentives are not included.
Charging at home: the condition, and the one purchase
Everything favorable above assumes most charging happens at home. A standard 120-volt outlet works, but slowly; for daily driving, most owners install a Level 2 charger on a dedicated 240-volt circuit, which refills a typical day of driving overnight. The installation is a job for a licensed electrician, and the quote for it belongs in your decision before you choose the car.
Best for: charging at home, overnight
Level 2 home EV charger
- Refills a typical day of driving overnight
- Keeps you on home electricity instead of public chargers at about 42¢ per kWh
- Scheduled charging can use off-peak rates where your utility offers them
- Wall-mounted, with the cable stored off the floor
The catch: Installation by a licensed electrician, on a dedicated circuit, is not optional. Get the quote first.
Current price and availability on Amazon
As an Amazon Associate, this site earns from qualifying purchases. It costs you nothing extra, and it does not change the verdict: when the numbers say a purchase never pays for itself, that is what you will read.
If you have an existing 240-volt outlet in the garage, a portable Level 2 chargeraff. that plugs into it can be an alternative to a wall unit; have an electrician confirm the outlet and circuit are rated for continuous EV charging before relying on it. Whatever you install, a wall-mounted cable holderaff. keeps a heavy charging cable off the garage floor, where it gets driven over and wears.
What changes from one state to another
The national averages hide two prices that move independently: gas and electricity. Where both are high, their effects partly cancel out; where gas is expensive and power is cheap, the EV’s advantage grows. Three examples with the same car and the same 80/20 charging split, using the EIA’s latest figures:
| State | Regular gas | Home electricity | Running cost gap per mile |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | $6.003 | 34.74¢ per kWh | about 17 cents |
| Texas | $3.929 | 15.94¢ per kWh | about 13 cents |
| Hawaii (West Coast gas average) | $5.106 | 52.72¢ per kWh | about 9 cents |
California has the most expensive gas in the country and some of the most expensive electricity, and the EV still comes out furthest ahead there, because gas is so far above average. In Texas both prices are low, and the gap is close to the national one. Hawaii, where residential power costs more than 50 cents per kWh, shows the limit: the per-mile saving is barely half the national figure. Nevada, at 13.11 cents per kWh, has the cheapest residential electricity in the EIA’s June 2026 table. Whatever your state, the break-even mileage in the calculator moves with these two prices, which is why it fills them in for you.
A hybrid: the option in between
The comparison is usually framed as gas against electric, but AAA’s own figures point to a third answer. In its 2025 study, the hybrid category cost 63.94 cents a mile all in, less than the electric category at 71.21 cents, and AAA noted hybrids were the second least expensive for fuel, behind EVs, and among the lowest for maintenance and depreciation. A hybrid needs no charger, no installation quote and no change of habits, and it captures part of the fuel saving.
For a driver without a place to charge at home, that matters. Without home charging, the EV’s per-mile advantage shrinks to a few cents, and the hybrid can be the cheaper of the three. To size a hybrid’s fuel bill, enter its combined mpg from its fueleconomy.gov label in the gas price tool, next to your current car’s: the difference per month, against the difference in payment, gives the same kind of break-even as the EV calculator.
Depreciation, insurance and the tax credit that ended
Three more lines deserve a word, because they can overturn a close result. The first is depreciation. AAA’s 2025 Your Driving Costs study found electric vehicles the least expensive category for maintenance, repair and tires, but the most expensive for depreciation, which put them at 71.21 cents a mile overall, above hybrids at 63.94 cents (AAA fact sheet). On a lease, depreciation is built into the payment you enter; on a purchase, it is the value you will not get back at resale.
The second is insurance. Premiums for an EV can differ from those of your current car in either direction. The calculator has a line for the monthly difference: get the actual quote from your insurer rather than guessing.
The third is the federal tax credit, which many older articles still count. According to the IRS, the new clean vehicle credit of up to $7,500, the used clean vehicle credit and the commercial clean vehicle credit are not available for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025 (IRS). Any calculation built on that credit is out of date. Some states and utilities still offer their own incentives, which you can add by lowering the payment in the calculator.
Where this fits in a car budget
The EV question is one piece of a bigger one: what your car costs per mile, all in. The article on the real cost per mile of a car shows why depreciation and insurance weigh more than gas, and why the cheapest car is often the one you already own. Whatever you drive, the free levers still apply: an EV is heavy, and like any car it loses range and efficiency on soft tires, as the article on tire pressure and gas mileage explains; a digital tire pressure gaugeaff. checks them in a minute.
The complete ranking of ways to spend less on driving, from free habits to the choice of car, is in the guide to driving for less. To see what gas costs in your state this week, use the gas price tool; and if the running costs of your household appliances are the next line you want to cut, the appliance electricity cost calculator uses the same state electricity prices as the EV comparison. For appliances at the end of their life, the same payment-versus-repair logic appears in repair or replace.
Frequently asked questions
- Is an electric car worth it financially?
- It depends above all on what you drive today and how you pay for it. Against a paid-off gas car, an EV with a $400 monthly payment only becomes cheaper at around 2,670 miles a month, about 32,000 a year, with gas at the EIA's $4.478 national average for the week of September 21, 2026, 80% home charging at the U.S. average of 18.34 cents per kWh, and upkeep at 10.1 cents a mile for gas against 6.1 for electric (Argonne National Laboratory). Against a car that is still on a $450 loan, the same EV saves about $219 a month at 1,125 miles. The calculator on this page runs your case.
- How much does it cost to charge an electric car per month?
- Multiply your monthly miles by the car's consumption and your price per kWh. At 30 kWh per 100 miles and the U.S. residential average of 18.34 cents per kWh (EIA, June 2026), charging at home costs about $5.50 per 100 miles, or about $62 for 1,125 miles. At public chargers, which averaged 42 cents per kWh according to AAA on September 17, 2026, the same 100 miles cost about $12.60.
- Is it cheaper to run an EV than a gas car per mile?
- Yes, when you charge at home. With gas at $4.478 a gallon, a 25-mpg car spends about 17.9 cents a mile on fuel; an EV using 30 kWh per 100 miles spends about 5.5 cents at home and 12.6 cents on public chargers. Adding scheduled maintenance, 10.1 cents a mile for gas cars and 6.1 for electric ones according to Argonne, the running cost gap is about 15 cents a mile with 80% home charging.
- Is there still a federal tax credit for electric cars in 2026?
- No. According to the IRS, the new clean vehicle credit of up to $7,500, the used clean vehicle credit and the commercial clean vehicle credit are not available for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025. Some states and utilities run their own incentives; check your state's energy office and your electric utility.
- Do electric cars really cost less to maintain?
- Scheduled maintenance, yes. Argonne National Laboratory's total cost of ownership study for the Department of Energy estimated 6.1 cents a mile for a battery-electric light-duty vehicle against 10.1 cents for a gas one: no oil changes, spark plugs or timing belts. AAA's 2025 study also found electric vehicles the least expensive for maintenance, repair and tires, but the most expensive for depreciation.
- Should I replace my paid-off car with an EV to save on gas?
- Rarely, at ordinary mileage. A paid-off car has no payment, so its monthly cost is mostly gas and upkeep, about $315 a month at 1,125 miles in the example on this page. An EV's payment alone usually exceeds that. The switch pays when your car needs replacing anyway, when you drive a great deal, or when your current car still has a payment of its own.
Who wrote this
Baptiste S.
Founder and writer · bs-media
I am not a financial adviser or an economist. I keep the books of an ordinary household, and I got tired of tip lists that never put a number on anything. So I work the other way round: I start from the expense, find the public data that says what it really costs, work out how long the object meant to cut it takes to pay for itself, and publish the result — including when it says to buy nothing.
- I start from public data — federal fuel prices, the Consumer Price Index, Energy Star ratings — and I say where every figure comes from.
- Every calculation shows its assumptions. If your usage differs from my example, the calculator gives you your own break-even point.
- I say when a purchase never pays for itself, including the best-selling product in its category.
- Credit, investing, insurance and public benefits are out of scope and referred to the competent body.
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