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Driving a Gas Car Now Cheaper Than EV, Study Suggests

It could contribute to a price war that benefits consumers.

Owning and operating your own vehicle costs a lot regardless of what’s under the hood. But, for the first time in a while, there seems to be a slight advantage to driving a mid-priced internal combustion engine car as opposed to a comparable battery electric model.

READ MORE: Choosing EVs or Conventional Cars 

The latest research from Anderson Economic Group looked at the costs and found that typical mid-priced ICE car drivers paid about $11.29 to fuel their vehicles for 100 miles of driving. That comes out to about $0.31 less than it costs to drive a mid-priced EV the same distance if the driver is charging mostly at home. Mid-priced EV drivers powering up their vehicles at commercial charging stations paid about $3 more.

According to AEG, it’s the first time in 18 months that mid-priced internal combustion engine cars have beat out EVs. The shift can be attributed to rising gas prices in 2022.

Those numbers only apply to mid-priced vehicles, though. There’s not enough data to compare entry-priced internal combustion engine cars and trucks with comparable EVs and the cost of driving a gas-powered car 100 miles approaches $20, significantly higher than comparable luxury EVs.

In calculating driving costs, AEG considers the cost of underlying energy sources like gas, diesel and electric, along with state taxes for road maintenance, the cost of operating a pump or charger and the cost of driving to a fueling station, or deadhead miles.

Fluctuations in cost of ownership notwithstanding, there’s reason to believe that EVs will remain popular with consumers despite some infrastructure limitations and pushback from lawmakers. Tesla earlier this month cut back prices for some of its models by as much as 20% and there are some in the industry who believe that it could start a price war that benefits consumers.

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