Future of DrivingUK & Europe

The running-cost question

What would your
miles cost?

Compare petrol with charging at home, in public, or a bit of both. Use your own numbers to see the difference.

UK imperial MPGEnergy costs onlyCalculated in your browser

Your driving, your prices

All starting values are illustrative, editable examples, not current tariffs or vehicle specifications. Results update as you type.

01 Distance & petrol
miles / year
UK mpg

Imperial gallons, not US.

p / litre
02 Electric driving
miles / kWh

Miles driven per kWh drawn from the battery.

p / kWh
p / kWh
03 Your charging mix
All publicAll home

Share of energy reaching the battery, rather than the number of charging stops. The rest is public charging.

Optional: charging losses Excluded at 0%

Some billed electricity may not reach the battery. Enter your own assumptions separately for each charging type. Zero excludes losses; it is not an estimate of real-world charging.

%
%

Use billed-to-battery losses only. Don’t add upstream public-station losses already covered by its price. If your efficiency already uses billed electricity, leave losses at zero to avoid counting them twice.

No account needed. Your inputs are not sent anywhere or saved.

Your energy comparison

Your mixed-charging cost

—

per year in electricity

Difference versus petrol—
Energy costs using the same annual mileage
Driving / chargingPer milePer yearPer month

Monthly figures are annual costs divided by 12.

Annual difference versus petrol

Positive = saving. Negative = higher cost.

Public charging break-even

An energy comparison, not a total ownership quote. A cheaper charging bill does not tell you whether buying an EV will save money overall.

A note on the numbers

What this includes

Petrol and electricity for the miles you enter. It excludes buying or financing a car, depreciation, insurance, maintenance, charger installation, standing charges, subscriptions and parking or session fees.

Use an efficiency you expect in your own driving. Weather, speed and how you drive can change it.

The calculation

No hidden assumptions

One UK imperial gallon is 4.54609 litres. Petrol pence per mile = price per litre × 4.54609 ÷ MPG.

For EVs, divide the home and public prices by their retained-energy fractions, weight them by your battery-energy mix, then divide by miles per kWh. With 10% loss, divide by 0.90, rather than adding 10%.

About Future of Driving

Following the changes in transport.

A tech enthusiast’s independent project covering electric vehicles, self-driving technology, robotaxis and regulation, with a focus on the UK and Europe. Future coverage will follow Tesla FSD and Cybercab alongside developments across electrified transport.

Read the articles · Editorial standards.