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Electric car running cost calculator
An electric car's energy cost is the miles you drive, times the electricity it uses per mile, times the price you pay per kWh. At 73 Auto's default electricity price of 30p per kWh and a typical 20 kWh per 100 km, 7,400 miles a year works out at about £715 a year, or 9.7p a mile. The rest of an EV's running costs are road tax, insurance, servicing, repairs and tyres, which 73 Auto estimates for the specific car.
Published 2026-09-28 · Publisher: 73 Auto
Work out an electric car's running costs
Enter a UK registration and your own electricity price and mileage for that car's running costs. 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
The electricity formula
annual cost = miles × 1.609344 × (kWh per 100 km ÷ 100) × price per kWh
This is the calculation 73 Auto runs. The consumption comes from your own figure if you give one, then an official figure for the model where one is available, and only otherwise from a generic 20 kWh per 100 km. That generic figure is treated as energy drawn from the socket, so no further charging loss is added; a figure stated at the battery has charging losses added at 90% efficiency. Driving style scales consumption: calm driving uses 10% less, aggressive driving 15% more.
Annual electricity cost at 30p per kWh
The formula above worked through for three consumption levels, normal driving. Cost scales in direct proportion to price: at 15p per kWh, halve each figure.
| Miles a year | 15 kWh/100 km | 20 kWh/100 km | 25 kWh/100 km |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5,000 | £362 | £483 | £604 |
| 7,400 | £536 | £715 | £893 |
| 10,000 | £724 | £966 | £1,207 |
| 15,000 | £1,086 | £1,448 | £1,811 |
Home and public charging
73 Auto prices electricity at one rate per kWh. It doesn't split your charging between home and public chargers, because it can't know that split. If you charge partly on public chargers, enter a blended price: for example, if a quarter of your charging is at a public rate, use a quarter of that rate plus three quarters of your home rate.
The rest of an electric car's running costs
- Road tax. Electric cars pay Vehicle Excise Duty in the UK; see EV road tax 2026.
- Servicing and repairs. Estimated component by component for the systems the car actually has, so an electric car carries no engine oil, clutch or exhaust costs. See car maintenance cost.
- Tyres. Tyre life is estimated from the car's weight, power and drive layout as well as your mileage. See car tyre cost.
- Insurance. An expected premium for the car and driver. See car insurance cost.
Running costs leave out depreciation and finance. For the full picture, see electric car cost of ownership.
Running costs in 73 Auto's electric examples
Each of the 10 electric cars in 73 Auto's worked examples, with its electricity line and its running-cost subtotal (electricity, insurance, servicing, repairs, tyres and breakdown cover). Road tax is missing from all of these source reports, so the subtotals leave it out.
| Vehicle | Fuel | Electricity | Running costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nissan Leaf 2018 | Electricity | £714 | £2,796 |
| Peugeot 208 Allure EV 2020 | Electricity | £714 | £2,582 |
| Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD 2019 | Electricity | £714 | £2,856 |
| Volkswagen ID.3 Life 2021 | Electricity | £714 | £2,596 |
| Tesla Model Y Long Range AWD 2022 | Electricity | £714 | £2,616 |
| Kia Niro 2 EV 2023 | Electricity | £714 | £2,543 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 5 Ultimate EV 2023 | Electricity | £714 | £2,543 |
| MG 4 Trophy 2023 | Electricity | £714 | £2,543 |
| Peugeot 2008 Allure EV 2024 | Electricity | £714 | £2,673 |
| BMW i4 eDrive35 M Sport 2024 | Electricity | £714 | £2,985 |
About these examples. All 10 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.
Common questions
Why is the electricity line the same for every example?
Each example's electricity line is exactly the generic calculation: 20 kWh per 100 km at the example's price per kWh. None of these cars had a vehicle-specific consumption figure when they were calculated, so the differences between them come from the other categories. Enter your own consumption and price for a figure specific to your car.
Limitations
The table above is arithmetic at a stated price, not a forecast of energy prices. Real consumption varies with temperature, speed, battery condition and how you charge. All figures are modelled estimates, not quotes.
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.