Will an EV pay off for you?
Put in your driving, your current car and how you'd charge — home, work, public and your own solar. You'll see the real cost per 100 km, the yearly saving, when it pays back, and the CO₂ you'd avoid. Everything updates live and the link is shareable.
The EV is cheaper upfront and to run — it saves ~1 223 USD/yr from day one.
Blended charge: 0.21 USD/kWh
≈ 71 trees' yearly CO₂ uptake, or 7.8 short-haul flights — avoided every year.
Estimates for guidance — real costs depend on tariffs, driving and depreciation.
How we calculate — no black box
Your home / work / public shares are normalised into one price per kWh; the PV share replaces part of the home price with your solar cost.
Added on top of the car's consumption (default 10%) — you pay for what leaves the socket, not what reaches the battery.
Your car: consumption × fuel price. The EV: consumption × blended electricity price, losses included.
Net upfront premium (after incentives) ÷ yearly saving. Totals are over your chosen horizon, without discounting.
Tailpipe emissions per litre burned vs your country's grid intensity per kWh charged; your PV share counts as zero.
Depreciation, financing and resale value — they vary too much between cars and markets to guess honestly, so we leave them out rather than invent them.
Common questions
Is an EV really cheaper to run than a petrol or diesel car?
Per kilometre — usually yes. Electricity, even at public fast chargers, mostly undercuts fuel, and home or workplace charging widens the gap a lot. But it depends on your country's prices and your charging mix, which is exactly what this calculator lets you check with your own numbers instead of an average.
Do I need home charging for an EV to pay off?
No, but it's the single biggest lever. Charging only at public fast chargers can approach petrol cost per km in some countries; adding overnight AC or workplace charging restores most of the saving. Try the "No home charger" quick-start to see your case.
How is the payback time calculated?
Net upfront premium (the EV's extra price over a comparable combustion car, minus any grant) divided by the yearly running saving (energy plus the maintenance, insurance and tax differences). The chart shows both cumulative cost curves — the payback is where they cross.
Where do the default prices and CO₂ numbers come from?
Ballpark 2026 retail fuel and electricity prices for the country you pick — in its own currency — plus that country's average electricity grid CO₂ intensity. Every figure is editable, and your edits are encoded in the page link so a shared scenario reproduces exactly.