Everyone talks about how cheap electric cars are to run (I certainly do!). But cheap compared to what, exactly — and how do you actually work it out? Well, good news is that you’re in the right place for our EV MPG calculator (also known as MPGe)
This calculator does the hard work for you. Plug in your real-world driving figures alongside the details of any petrol or diesel car you want to compare against, and it will show you your true cost per mile, your EV’s petrol-equivalent MPG, and how much you’d save over 8,000 miles. You can use it to analyse your current EV, or to model a car you’re thinking about buying — just swap in the claimed range and battery capacity from the manufacturer’s spec sheet and see how the numbers stack up before you commit.
One thing worth paying close attention to before you fill this in: the cost per kWh you enter makes an enormous difference to the results. Home charging is where the real savings are — a decent overnight EV / intelligent tariff can bring your cost per kWh down to a fraction of what you’d pay on a public rapid charger. Some dedicated EV energy tariffs offer rates that are close to ten times cheaper than public charging, which has a massive impact on these results. If you haven’t already looked into what tariff you’re on, it’s worth doing before anything else. The difference between home and public charging costs is often bigger than the difference between the cars themselves – be sure to check our our recent article on not cheaping out on EV battery size – Why You Shouldn’t Cheap Out on Battery Size When Buying an EV
