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Car cost per mile calculator

A car's cost per mile is its total ownership cost divided by the miles you drive: depreciation, fuel or electricity, insurance, servicing, repairs, tyres, tax and finance, not just fuel. Across the 53 vehicles 73 Auto has analysed at 7,400 miles a year, it ranges from £0.58 to £1.30 a mile, with a median of £0.75. Because a large part of the cost is fixed, the figure per mile falls the more you drive.

Check what a specific car really costs to own

Published 2026-09-28 · Publisher: 73 Auto

At a glance

Cost per mile across the vehicles 73 Auto has analysed
Figure	Value	Basis
Median cost per mile	£0.75	n = 53 vehicles analysed by 73 Auto
Lowest to highest cost per mile	£0.58 – £1.30	n = 53
Annual mileage behind these figures	7,400 miles	Same for every example

Work out your car's cost per mile

Enter a UK registration and your own annual mileage to see the cost per mile for that car and the way you drive. Your first check is free and shows the vehicle summary and its headline ownership cost. The category-by-category breakdown is part of a paid check.

UK number plate or 17-character VIN

How to calculate cost per mile

cost per mile = total ownership cost over the period ÷ miles driven over the period

For example, 73 Auto's worked example for a Peugeot 308 Allure Premium PureTech S&S auto 2023 comes to £5,527 a year at 7,400 miles a year, which is £0.75 a mile.

Use the same total and the same mileage for every car you compare. Per mile is the fairest way to compare cars you would drive very different distances; for a monthly budget, see the monthly cost of owning a car.

Why cost per mile falls as mileage rises

Some costs follow the miles you drive: fuel or electricity, tyres, and much of the wear on brakes and suspension. Others are mostly fixed however far you go: road tax, a large part of insurance, the MOT, finance interest and much of the depreciation. Spread the fixed costs over more miles and each mile gets cheaper, which is why a low-mileage driver's cost per mile is usually higher even when their yearly bill is lower. 73 Auto recalculates every mileage-dependent category from the annual mileage you enter.

Cost per mile by fuel type

Median total cost per mile for each fuel type, at the same annual mileage.

Only fuel types with at least 5 examples are summarised.

Cost per mile by fuel type
Fuel type	Median per mile	Median per year	Examples
Electric	£0.71	£5,254	10
Petrol	£0.72	£5,303	24
Diesel	£0.78	£5,774	16

Not summarised because the sample is too small: hybrid (3 examples).

Fuel cost per mile on its own

For a petrol or diesel car, the fuel part of the cost per mile is the price per litre times the litres in a gallon (4.54609), divided by the car's miles per gallon. As an illustration only, at 140p a litre:

Fuel cost per mile at 140p a litre by mpg
Miles per gallon	Fuel cost per mile
30 mpg	21.2p
40 mpg	15.9p
50 mpg	12.7p
60 mpg	10.6p

140p a litre is an illustration, not today's price. 73 Auto's own calculation uses the latest UK average pump price; see car fuel cost. For an electric car's energy cost per mile, see the electric car running cost calculator.

Real examples by cost per mile

Five worked examples spread from the lowest to the highest cost per mile.

Real examples by cost per mile
Vehicle	Fuel	Per mile	Per year
Ford Fiesta 2010	Diesel	£0.58	£4,284
Ford Puma ST-Line X mHEV 2020	Petrol	£0.65	£4,807
Peugeot 308 Allure Premium PureTech S&S auto 2023	Petrol	£0.75	£5,527
Land Rover Range Rover Evoque 2014	Diesel	£0.81	£5,989
Audi RS 3 TFSI quattro 2024	Petrol	£1.30	£9,650

About these examples. All 53 were calculated under one standard scenario: 7,400 miles a year, 3-year ownership, finance purchase. They describe the specific vehicles 73 Auto has analysed, not every car of that type in the UK. They were calculated on 21 Jul 2026. Since then, 73 Auto has rebuilt its fuel prices and VED rules, tyres, servicing, repairs and maintenance, depreciation and insurance models, so a new report for the same car today can give different figures from its example.

Limitations

Every example here uses the same annual mileage, so these per-mile figures are each car's yearly total divided by that mileage. At a different mileage every figure changes, and not in proportion, because some costs are fixed. They are modelled estimates for specific vehicles, not a UK average.

How 73 Auto works this out

Every category is explained in the methodology, and the data sources page lists which inputs are official data and which are 73 Auto estimates. How pages are written and kept up to date is set out in the editorial policy; to report a factual error, see corrections.