While the purchase price is one thing to consider when investing in fleet vehicles, it’s also important to look at the total cost of owning an EV, compared to a petrol (or diesel) vehicle. Total cost of ownership is a calculation that adds up all the costs related to buying and operating the vehicle, and then subtracts the residual value of the vehicle (the price it can be sold for).
Research indicates that the total cost of owning an EV is significantly less than owning a petrol car. This is because BEV engines are much simpler than internal combustion engines, with fewer moving parts, which means maintenance is far less expensive. There is no need to tune the engine, change the oil, replace the spark plugs, or service the transmission.
One study found electric vehicle servicing costs are one-third lower than ICE servicing costs. Based on this assumption, you might spend $1,000 maintaining a petrol engine each year or $666 to maintain a BEV. (Hybrid vehicles still have an ICE engine, so servicing costs won’t be much lower, if at all.)
In another study, the average total cost of ownership for the four tested EVs was 67.5% of the total cost of owning the petrol alternatives, at $36,772 for the EVs compared to $54,473 for the petrol cars. The real-world evidence is stacking up in favour of EVs and we haven’t even mentioned burning expensive fossil fuels.
Using electricity to power your car, instead of petrol is a major saving.
To put it another way, running an EV is the equivalent of paying just 40 cents per litre for petrol.
Choosing to go electric could mean you rack up just 67% of the costs associated with the petrol alternatives!
Of course, the total cost of ownership needs to include any future resale price to be truly representative, and EV ownership is looking good there, too. The EVs looked at in this study had a higher residual value after five years of ownership, whereas the petrol vehicles generally lost value faster. After five years, the four tested EVs could be expected to sell for, on average, 50% of their original purchase price. The petrol cars, on the other hand, had expectations, on average, that were 43% of their original purchase price.
