Showing Australia · real 2026 prices
Plug in how you drive and your local prices. We'll show your real yearly running cost, side by side — using current Australian electricity and fuel figures.
Adjust anything to match your situation.
Estimate only. Excludes purchase price, servicing, registration & insurance. Public fast-charging costs more than home charging. CO₂ is based on standard fuel and grid emission factors for your region.
Transparent maths and current Australian figures — so you can trust the result and tweak it to your own numbers.
EV cost = (km ÷ 100) × kWh/100km × price per kWh. Fuel cost = (km ÷ 100) × L/100km × price per litre. CO₂ avoided = (litres of fuel × its emissions factor) − (EV kWh × 0.6 kg) — using 2.31 kg/L for petrol or 2.68 kg/L for diesel, and ~0.6 kg/kWh for the current Australian grid average (which is falling each year). Figures are guides drawn from public 2026 Australian data; your real costs depend on your car, tariff and driving. This tool gives estimates, not financial advice.
For a typical driver, an electric car costs roughly a third of what a petrol car costs to “fuel” — but the gap depends entirely on your electricity tariff.
The maths is simple. An EV uses about 16 kWh of electricity per 100 km, while a comparable petrol car burns around 7.5 litres. At a mixed home tariff of 25c/kWh that’s roughly $4 per 100 km for the EV, versus about $14 for petrol at $1.90 a litre. Over an average 13,000 km year, that difference adds up to well over $1,000 — before you count the lower servicing costs of an electric drivetrain.
Your real savings hinge on when and how you charge. Charging overnight on an off-peak plan (~15c/kWh) or from rooftop solar (often 5c or less) widens the gap dramatically; relying on public fast-chargers narrows it. Petrol prices are volatile too, so it’s worth re-running the numbers with your own figures rather than trusting an average.
This calculator covers running costs only — it doesn’t include the purchase price, insurance or registration, which vary by model. Use it to understand the energy savings, then weigh those against the upfront cost of the specific cars you’re comparing.
Quick answers about EV versus petrol running costs.
For a typical driver charging at home, the electricity for an EV costs roughly a third of the equivalent petrol bill — often less on an off-peak tariff or rooftop solar. The gap narrows if you rely mostly on public fast charging, so the honest answer depends on your tariff, which is why every figure in this calculator is editable.
Both cars use the same simple formula: (distance ÷ 100) × efficiency × energy price. For the EV that’s kWh/100km times your per-kWh electricity price; for the petrol car it’s L/100km times the pump price per litre. No hidden assumptions — the full method is shown on this page.
No — this tool compares energy (running) costs only. Purchase price, insurance, registration and depreciation vary too much by model to generalise. EVs do typically save on servicing as well, so the running-cost gap shown here is usually conservative.
Usually, yes. The comparison is: litres of fuel × 2.31–2.68 kg of CO₂ versus kWh used × your grid’s emissions factor. On most grids the EV comes out well ahead, grids get cleaner every year, and charging from rooftop solar is close to zero-emission driving.
They’re drawn from current public data for the country you select — energy regulators, fuel-price monitors and charging networks, linked in the sources note above. Treat them as sensible starting points and set your own numbers for a result that matches your life.
