Even though electric cars are more expensive to purchase, the manufacturers of electric cars have always claimed that they are cheaper to own. This isn’t just referring to the cost of fossil fuel. A new report shows that the claims that electric vehicles are less expensive to own turn out to be true.
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Consumer Reports has published a study indicating that the most popular EVs are less expensive to own over their lifespans than the best gas cars in their respective classes. Among EVs under $50,000, you’d typically see costs drop between $6,000 to $10,000 versus a combustion engine car.
According to the report, the majority of the valuable findings was as a result of the Tesla Model 3 – it is the fastest selling electric vehicle in history. The entry-level Model 3 saw savings for its owner of $15,000 compared to a similar petrol-powered vehicle – in this case the best selling one the class, the BWM 330i. The same trend was seen for hybrid vehicles, but to a lesser extent. The saving is accumulated of a five to seven year period.
Interestingly, the savings on fuelling the cars play a significantly smaller role in the calculation than you might think. According to the report, drivers of electric vehicles spend about 60 percent less to keep their vehicles topped up, and owners whose cars have a range of 250 miles or more can handle 92 percent of their charging at home instead of public fast chargers.
But importantly, reliability reports also suggest a much cheaper cost of maintenance for electric vehicles. Repair costs are about half as much for electric vehicles as for traditional internal combustion engine cars.
There is a major caveat attached to the report, however. It is less true if you discount savings from government incentives of buying the electric car. Nevertheless, the fact that the savings are bigger than that eventual cost of replacing the batteries after 10 years or so is encouraging.
