Aren’t EVs More Expensive?

Many believe the costs of EVs are greater than those for regular gas cars. This may be because the most famous EV models are upscale ones. It may be because there are few used EVs on the market (though they are really inexpensive). And partly because you are pre-buying much of the cost of fuel, in the form of the battery, upfront when you buy the car. But once you figure in the fuel and maintenance costs over any reasonable length of time, EVs are cheaper.

Some are much cheaper. Curiously, the savings are greatest for the most upscale models (because upscale ICE cars are very pricey). For example, over ten years the Lucid Air Grand Touring is more than $73,400 cheaper than buying and maintaining an equivalent gas model (Porsche Panamera Turbo S). At the low end, the ten-year savings for purchase of the Chevy Bolt (compared to a Nissan Rogue Sport) are $25,300. The legacy car manufacturers prefer to keep you buying their high-profit internal combustion engine cars (ICEs) by shouting that EVs are more expensive, but that is simply untrue when you include operating costs.

The Washington Post in 2023 did a comparison of costs over five years and found the average savings for driving an EV in our area varied with the type of vehicle (truck/SUV/sedan) and the average cost of gasoline and electricity in each of the four corners’ states. Interestingly, they expressed the EV savings in terms of how many dollars you would save per avoided fill up. The average savings per fill up were as follows:

Wouldn’t you like to be handed a $50 bill every time you didn’t go to the gas station?