EV Breakeven Calculator
How long until fuel savings pay back the EV's price premium? Enter purchase prices, your ZIP, and annual mileage — we use local electricity tariffs and EIA gas prices.
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Pick an EV to start.
How EV payback period is calculated
Payback period = (EV price − gas car price + installation) ÷ annual fuel savings. Annual fuel savings come from the difference between gas $/mile (gas price ÷ MPG) and EV $/mile (electricity rate ÷ miles per kWh), multiplied by miles driven per year.
We pull the residential electricity rate for your ZIP code (curated utility tariffs or OpenEI URDB, falling back to state averages) and the latest EIA per-state gasoline price. Federal and state EV incentives shorten the breakeven — apply them by lowering the EV purchase price input.