EV vs Petrol UK 2026: When Is an Electric Car Actually Cheaper?

Break-even annual mileage, by charging mix

At a normalised £1.50/litre petrol price, this is the annual mileage at which the EV's total 5-year ownership cost drops below the petrol car's — for each home-charging share, comparing standard public charging against rapid charging:

Figures rounded to the nearest 10 miles. "No break-even" means the EV doesn't catch up within a realistic mileage range under that scenario.

How home-charging share moves the break-even point

Standard public charging, £1.50/litre petrol — same data as the first column above, shown visually:

Bars are to scale against each other (tallest = largest break-even mileage); exact figures are labelled above each bar and in the table.

Sensitivity to petrol price

Standard public charging (54p/kWh) at two charging mixes, across three petrol-price scenarios:

Key findings

• Home charging materially changes EV economics. In the standard-public-charging scenario above, the break-even mileage roughly doubles between 100% and 50% home charging, and becomes impractically high at 0%.
• Low-mileage drivers shouldn't automatically assume an EV is cheaper. Below the relevant break-even mileage, the representative petrol car is the lower-total-cost option in this model — mainly because the EV's higher purchase price depreciates to a larger cash amount over 5 years.
• Heavy rapid/public charging can sharply reduce or eliminate the EV's advantage. At 0% home charging with rapid-charging prices, there's no break-even at all under these assumptions — the petrol car stays cheaper across the mileage range modelled.
• Higher petrol prices lower the EV break-even mileage. Moving from £1.50 to £2.00/litre roughly halves the mileage needed at a given charging mix, in the sensitivity table above.
• Depreciation can matter as much as energy or fuel cost. At zero mileage, the representative EV's combined depreciation and fixed costs are higher than the petrol car's — the EV only wins once enough miles have accumulated for cheaper charging to close that gap.
• There is no universal EV-vs-petrol break-even point. The mileage needed moves by nearly an order of magnitude across the scenarios above, depending on charging mix and fuel price alone — before even varying the vehicles themselves.

Methodology and assumptions

This is RealCarCost analysis — modelled scenarios for two representative, hypothetical vehicles, not a survey and not a claim about every EV or every petrol car on the market. Every figure on this page is calculated by the same cost engine behind the interactive EV vs Petrol calculator — depreciation, charging or fuel, insurance, VED, and servicing/tyres/other costs, summed over a 5-year ownership period — plus a mileage search to find where the two totals cross. See the methodology page for the finance and depreciation conventions used across every calculator on this site.

Energy and fuel price assumptions (all labelled scenarios, not universal UK costs): home electricity at 26.32p/kWh — Ofgem's average Direct Debit unit rate for 1 October–31 December 2026; standard public charging at 54p/kWh and rapid charging at 77p/kWh as benchmark scenarios; petrol at £1.50/litre as a round normalised scenario, ~£1.75/litre as an approximate current-market figure as of early October 2026 (check current prices yourself — this isn't a live or permanent figure), and £2.00/litre as a stress scenario. Finance cost is not included (both vehicles modelled as bought outright) — financing either car would add interest cost on top, which the interactive calculator lets you enter directly.

Limitations. Real depreciation, insurance and running costs vary significantly by specific make, model, condition and driver — these are illustrative, representative figures, not valuations for any particular car. The depreciation model here is a flat annual percentage, not mileage- or model-specific. Results are rounded to the nearest 10 miles; treat every figure on this page as an order-of-magnitude guide to the mileage involved, not a precise personal forecast.

Sources

• Ofgem — energy price cap unit rates and standing charges (home electricity benchmark)
• GOV.UK — road fuel and other petroleum product price statistics (petrol price context)
• GOV.UK — vehicle tax for electric and low-emissions vehicles (VED)

Related

• EV vs petrol: which really costs less to own?
• Why cheaper fuel doesn't necessarily mean a cheaper car
• Real Car Cost Calculator