Petrol vs Hybrid vs Electric Car: Compare Fuel & Charging Costs
How much would you spend on petrol, hybrid or 100% battery electric driving? Compare petrol or diesel vs hybrid, electric vs petrol, or electric vs hybrid over the same distance. Enter your fuel and electricity prices to see trip, monthly and yearly costs. Plug-in hybrids are supported too.
Your fuel & charging costs
| Vehicle | Trip | Monthly | Yearly | Yearly saving vs Car A |
|---|
Yearly = 12 identical months. Estimates exclude purchase price, depreciation, insurance, servicing, parking and tolls. Savings are estimates, not guarantees.
How to interpret a car comparison before buying
This comparison estimates energy spending, not total ownership cost. For example, if Car A costs $0.12 per mile in fuel and Car B costs $0.05 per mile in electricity, the difference is $0.07 per mile. Over 12,000 miles a year, that is an illustrative $840 annual energy saving. It does not mean Car B is $840 cheaper to own after purchase price, depreciation, insurance, tyres and charging equipment.
Use your expected annual distance and actual local pump or charging tariff. For EVs, consider charging losses, seasonal efficiency and how much charging happens at home versus public chargers. For plug-in hybrids, the electric-driving share matters: a vehicle that is rarely plugged in may use much more petrol than an optimistic brochure comparison suggests.
Buying decision checklist: compare vehicles at the same annual distance, enter measured or clearly sourced consumption figures, test a higher and lower energy-price scenario, and evaluate purchase and financing costs separately. To measure your current car's actual economy, open the Real Mileage Checker; to budget a specific journey, use the Drive Cost Calculator.
Split a trip with friends · Check your real mileage
How we compare petrol, hybrid and electric costs
Monthly distance is your daily total multiplied by your driving days. We calculate fuel or electricity used from each car's efficiency, then multiply it by your entered price. The same distance is used for every car.
Which units does each country use?
USA: miles, US MPG and USD per US gallon. UK: miles, Imperial MPG and GBP per litre (enter £1.50, not 150 pence). Canada: kilometres, L/100 km and CAD per litre. Pakistan: kilometres, km/L and PKR per litre. Electric vehicles use kWh/100 km and price per kWh in every country.
Where does vehicle efficiency come from?
We reuse MyDriveCost's existing catalogues: US EPA ratings, UK VCA WLTP records, Canadian NRCan ratings and Pakistan market references. Ratings are planning estimates; traffic, air conditioning, weather and driving style change actual consumption. You can replace the catalogue figure with your measured efficiency. UK catalogue dates are not presented as model years.
Can I compare electric or plug-in hybrid cars?
Battery-electric cars with supported consumption data can be selected in the USA, Canada and UK. Pakistan’s BYD Atto 3 shows a clearly labelled estimate derived from stated battery capacity and range, not an official consumption rating. Plug-in hybrids can be entered as custom vehicles in every country. Their calculation needs separate fuel-only and electric-use figures, both prices, and your estimated electric-driving share. PHEVs without approved, clearly sourced separate consumption figures are not prefilled from catalogue estimates.
USA commute · Canada commute · UK commute · Pakistan commute