Electric Car Payback vs Petrol Car

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Electric car payback: when does an EV beat a petrol car?
Example values for Germany in 2026. Where a source is known it is named, the rest are assumptions. Compare yearly running costs and find the break-even. Replace the example numbers with your own.
Driving
yearlyDistance = 15000 km Petrol car (ICE)
Assumption: price of a comparable new car
icePrice = 28000 € Assumption: use the real consumption of your car (e.g. from your fuel log)
iceConsumption = 7 l / (100 km) to l / km ADAC: monthly average Super E10 in August 2026 was 2.145 €/l (presse.adac.de)
fuelPrice = 2.15 € / l Assumption: service and repairs, an EV often needs less (no oil changes)
iceServicePerYear = 700 € / year
iceTaxPerYear = 180 € / year Electric car (EV)
evPrice = 38000 €
subsidy = 0 € ADAC Ecotest: real consumption of current EVs ranges from about 15.5 to 29.7 kWh per 100 km, mid-size cars about 18 to 20 (via vattenfall.de, enbw.com)
evConsumption = 19 kWh / (100 km) to kWh / km Mix of home charging (cheap) and public charging (expensive)
homeShare = 70 % BDEW 08/2026: household average 37.0 ct/kWh (a special EV tariff can be lower)
homePrice = 0.37 € / kWh Public charging: ADAC e-Charge 0.55 €/kWh at AC; ad-hoc prices (ACE, 07/2026): 52 ct AC, 70 ct DC
publicPrice = 0.55 € / kWh
evServicePerYear = 350 € / year
evTaxPerYear = 0 € / year Running costs per year
iceFuelPerYear = yearlyDistance * iceConsumption * fuelPrice / (1 year)
electricityPrice = homeShare * homePrice + (1 - homeShare) * publicPrice
evEnergyPerYear = yearlyDistance * evConsumption * electricityPrice / (1 year)
iceRunning = iceFuelPerYear + iceServicePerYear + iceTaxPerYear
evRunning = evEnergyPerYear + evServicePerYear + evTaxPerYear
savingsPerYear = iceRunning - evRunning Payback: extra purchase price divided by yearly savings
extraPrice = evPrice - subsidy - icePrice
paybackTime = extraPrice / savingsPerYear to years Cost per km, all in
iceCostPerKm = iceRunning * (1 year) / yearlyDistance
evCostPerKm = evRunning * (1 year) / yearlyDistance After 8 years (ignores interest and resale value)
total8 = savingsPerYear * 8 years - extraPrice