How long an electric car takes to pay back its price premium in running cost, and whether it does so inside the period you plan to keep it. Distance driven decides this more than any price does: the same two cars break even in half the time at twice the mileage.
Also called: electric vs petrol car calculator, ev cost comparison.
6.71 years to recover the ₹6,00,000 price difference, at ₹89,438 of running cost saved a year. That is inside the 8 years being compared, leaving 115500 ahead by the end. Doubling the annual distance would halve the payback. Energy costs 1.2 a kilometre against 6.56 for petrol, and servicing saves 9000 a year on top. What this cannot settle is resale value and battery life, either of which carries more uncertainty than the whole running saving.
| Year | Electric, cumulative | Petrol, cumulative | Electric ahead by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | ₹18,24,000 | ₹13,13,438 | -₹5,10,563 |
| Year 2 | ₹18,48,000 | ₹14,26,875 | -₹4,21,125 |
| Year 3 | ₹18,72,000 | ₹15,40,313 | -₹3,31,688 |
| Year 4 | ₹18,96,000 | ₹16,53,750 | -₹2,42,250 |
| Year 5 | ₹19,20,000 | ₹17,67,188 | -₹1,52,813 |
| Year 6 | ₹19,44,000 | ₹18,80,625 | -₹63,375 |
The electric car costs more to buy and less to run, so the question is simply how long the running saving takes to cover the gap. That makes annual distance the dominant input, since the saving is per kilometre while the gap is fixed: a car driven 30,000 kilometres a year breaks even in half the time of the same car driven 15,000. Servicing matters more than people expect, since an electric drivetrain has far fewer wearing parts. What the arithmetic cannot settle is resale value and battery life, both of which carry more uncertainty than the running cost saving, and either can outweigh the whole calculation.
the price gap divided by the annual running saving, which is why the answer depends far more on distance driven than on either priceEach of these is asserted on every build. If a change to the engine ever moved one of these answers, the build would fail before the page could print it.
Years to break even6.71
18000 of electricity plus servicing, against 98437.50 of petrol plus servicing
Open this exampleYears to break even3.53
boundary: the saving is per kilometre while the gap is fixed
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