The Real Cost of Owning an Electric Car
The Nissan Leaf was the first mass-market electric car sold in the United States. Yes, there were EVs available before the Leaf (General Motors’ EV1 and Tesla’s Roadster are two well-known examples), but it was Nissan that tried to thread the needle of zero-emission mobility with a cost of entry low enough to sell tens of thousands—as opposed to a few hundred or thousand—of EVs to interested customers.
Since the Leaf’s arrival for the 2011 model year, the number of electric cars available in the U.S. has drastically increased. Even better, today’s electric cars pack EPA driving ranges well into triple digits (the first Leaf offered just 73 miles of range) and a number sport sticker prices that close in on parity with their gas equivalents. If you’ve ever wondered “How much does an electric car cost?”, then the Leaf’s decade-plus turn in the U.S. market offers a good look at how these battery-powered vehicles’ price has evolved over the years.
Cost of Electric Cars Compared to Gas-Powered Cars
The original Nissan Leaf wore a starting price of $33,600. Though we wrote the “initial investment” of our long-term 2011 Leaf was a “steep one” we also noted that, “we spent much less to run the car than we would a similar gas-powered hatchback.”
Nissan promoted the original Leaf to the masses with the message that recharging its battery pack came at a cost of $3 or less. The automaker even added that its electric hatch was less expensive to keep energized than a gas-powered car rated at 25 mpg. That is, as long gasoline stayed above $1.10 per gallon.
Yet, even accounting for its available federal tax credit of $7500, the Leaf’s cost of entry remained notably higher than that of the similarly sized Nissan Sentra, which stickered for less than $17,000 in 2011. Ignore the tax credit’s impact, and the delta between the least expensive electric Leaf and gas-powered Sentra in 2011 totaled more than $15,000. Account for inflation and that figure balloons to nearly $20,000.
Fast forward 11 model years, and the delta between the 2022 Sentra and 2022 Leaf (which start at $21,045 and $28,495, respectively) sits at $7450—a sum the $7500 federal tax credit more than offsets. (Given U.S.-market Leafs are built in Tennessee, the model may continue to benefit from the full $7500 credit under the updated provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA.) Don’t forget, the latest Leaf now offers a minimum of 149 miles of EPA-rated range, with the larger battery pack of pricier Plus-badged models netting more than 200 miles of range on a full charge.
The Chevrolet Bolt EV offers another example of electric cars’ costs coming closer to parity with gas models. When it was first introduced for 2017, the Bolt EV wore a starting price of $37,495. That same model year, the entry-level gas-powered Chevrolet Trax LS subcompact SUV cost $21,895.
Five model years later, the Bolt EV’s base price has dropped to $32,495, while the Trax now comes in at $22,595. In less than a dozen model years, the delta between these two models has fallen from $15,600 to $9900. And that delta is due to get even closer for model year 2023, with the Bolt EV’s base price falling to $26,595. While the Bolt EV has not been eligible for the federal tax credit for some time now (blame the fact that Chevy sold more than 200,000 plug-in hybrids and EVs, the credit’s prior cap), the passage of the IRA means the American-made Bolt EV will once again include the incentive of federal tax credits (potentially the full $7500).
Costs of Powering an Electric Car
The rapidly dropping cost of electric cars is complemented by the fact EVs are generally cheaper to fuel than gas-powered models, and they also tend to have less scheduled maintenance. However, as we learned with our long-term Tesla Model 3, even though EVs don’t require regular oil changes, service costs and normal wear items such as tires (which, in the case of the Model 3 wore out sooner than is typical on gas-powered vehicles) can still add up. Of course, many factors come into play here with the cost of electricity and gas, as well as the efficiency of a given model, altering just how cost-efficient an electric vehicle is. For instance, some bigger electric vehicles, such as the GMC Hummer EV, obviously aren’t going to have the energy efficiency of smaller EVs.
Even so, the relative stability of electricity prices ought to bring an additional piece of mind to EV owners. Gas prices have fluctuated wildly since Nissan kicked off sales of the Leaf. Did anyone else laugh to themselves at Nissan’s note about $1.10 for a gallon of gas? According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average residential cost for a kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity was just under $0.12 in May 2011. In May 2022, it was a smidge less than $0.15.
At that price, fully charging a new Bolt EV’s 66.0-kWh battery pack would cost approximately $9.90. Admittedly, charging inefficiencies are likely to raise this sum a small amount. Even so, netting 259 miles of EPA-rated driving range for less than two Hamiltons seems like a reasonable sum given it’d take $42 to fill a Trax’s 14.0-gallon tank at $3.00 per gallon. This figure rises to $56 at $4.00 per gallon. Sure, the Trax goes about 100 miles further on a tank, but the per-mile cost is still about three times the Bolt’s.
That said, EV drivers who rely primarily on pricier pay-per-use public fast chargers may see little or no difference in the amount they spend on charging relative to the cost of filling up a given gas-powered car at a fuel pump. That’s because the cost of energy from a fast charger is roughly three to four times more expensive than what you pay at home.
How much an EV costs is dependent on numerous factors. Nevertheless, the price of electric cars continues to come closer and closer to parity with their gas kin. Factor in the potential savings that come with charging at home, and it’s safe to say electric cars no longer carry the significant cost difference over gas-powered cars they once did
