About EV True Cost
EV True Cost is an independent project that answers one question as honestly as the public data allows: what does it really cost to own an electric vehicle over five years, in your state? Not just the charging bill — depreciation, insurance, maintenance, fees, and incentives too, compared head-to-head with a comparable gas car.
Why you can trust the numbers
- Every formula is shown. The calculator has a "How this is calculated" panel that prints each equation with your own numbers plugged in. Nothing is hidden in a black box.
- Real, named data sources. Per-state electricity and gas prices come from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA); vehicle efficiency from EPA/DOE FuelEconomy.gov; utility time-of-use plans from the OpenEI URDB; incentives and EV fees from the U.S. DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center. See the methodology for the field-by-field provenance.
- Refreshed monthly. A data pipeline re-pulls prices and efficiency every month and stamps each page with when it last changed.
- Honest about estimates. Depreciation, insurance, and incentives are estimates — they're labeled as such, dated, and fully editable, so you can substitute your own figures.
Independent and free
This site takes no advertising, no affiliate commissions, and no sponsored placements, and it does not sell or share your data. No carmaker, dealer, or utility pays to influence a result. The goal is simply a tool that's useful enough to earn traffic on its own merits — which means the numbers answer to the buyer, not to a sponsor.
How the comparison works
For each EV and state we compute a full five-year cost to own and the same for a comparable gas car, then surface the difference, the mileage and gas price at which the EV pulls ahead, and a year-by-year crossover. Depreciation is modeled from a transparent per-vehicle retention curve rather than a single opaque number. The full method, formulas, and assumptions live on the methodology page.
Privacy
The calculator runs entirely in your browser and stores nothing — no cookies, no local storage, no account. Your inputs never leave your device. If usage analytics are enabled, they're a privacy-first, cookieless measure of page views only (no cross-site tracking, no personal data), so no consent banner is needed.
Corrections & contact
Spotted a stale rate or a bad assumption? Corrections are welcome — the whole point is accuracy. Always verify a purchase decision with your utility, insurer, and state DMV before you buy.
Figures are estimates for comparison, not quotes. Prices last refreshed .