The initial price of a car should only factor into the decision to buy to a certain degree. It isn’t the only expense, as there are costs to owning a car that are ongoing. And those costs vary wildly between makes and models.
Muddying the waters even further, electric vehicles are becoming more mainstream and people have more of a choice. Even though everybody knows that fueling the car will cost less than filling it with gas, fewer people know what the actual ongoing costs of owning one are.
In this article, we will go over what those costs are so you know what to expect.
How much is it to charge?
Unfortunately, it is near impossible to calculate what you can expect to pay for charging because the cost of electricity is dramatically different from one end of the country to another.
You are charged by kW hour so you’ll have to find out what your local electricity provider charges. For instance, the lowest in the US is usually in Louisiana and costs less than $0.10 per kW hour. In Hawaii it will cost over $0.30. Then, you’ll have to find out how many kW hours are required to charge to get you 100 miles to be able to compare.
When you use a charging station, not at your home, it can also vary. Not all charging stations charge by kW but instead simply by the minute. You can check how they charge by looking at a map of Electrify America charging locations and then researching them.
All that said, you can expect it to cost you roughly $1,800 for most makes and models to charge 45,000 miles worth. That compares to roughly $4,500 in gas for a traditional car.
This also doesn’t take into consideration if you are charging at work and whether your employer makes you pay for it. In many cases they don’t so there are savings there as well.
Wear and tear
Since an electric vehicle doesn’t have as complex an engine as a traditional combustion engine, there is far less wear and tear that occurs. Parts don’t wear out like they do on a traditional vehicle.
You will have to worry about tires needing rotating and brake fluid changes, but those are not very costly at all. You will need to have brakes replaced at some point but even that is far less frequent. Electric cars use regenerative braking so the motor actually slows the car down and not just the brakes.
No oil changes or tune-ups
Since there is no combustion, there is also no motor oil that needs to be changed. And tune-ups are a thing of the past as there are no spark plugs, either. You will still need to have your car looked at in regular intervals to make sure things are ok, but often this can be done remotely and with specialized software.
