Running costs are only part of the answer. This weighs the full picture — purchase price, fuel, servicing and resale — so you can see whether the savings really recover the higher upfront cost, for your driving, in rupees.
₹1–1.4PER KM, HOME-CHARGED
6BODY-TYPE SEGMENTS
TCORESALE & SERVICING INCLUDED
0SIGN-UP REQUIRED
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Total cash difference over your ownership period, including purchase price and resale.
Updates live as you change anything below.
01 — Pick the cars you’re comparing
Start with a real petrol-vs-EV pair, then adjust any figure to match the exact variant you’re looking at.
⛽ Petrol
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Base ex-showroom price₹
Real-world mileagekm/l
VS
⚡ Electric
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Base ex-showroom price₹
Real-world efficiencykm/kWh
Prices are ex-showroom base-variant figures as of July 2026 — on-road cost adds registration and insurance, and EVs often attract lower road tax. Efficiency figures are real-world estimates, typically 20–30% below claimed figures. Every field stays editable, so match them to the exact variant you’re pricing.
Not finding your car? Use Custom at the bottom of the list and enter your own figures. Mass-market electric sedans barely exist in India yet, so that segment is not listed — if you’re comparing a sedan, enter its price and mileage manually.
02 — How & how much do you drive?
Charging access is the single biggest swing factor — public fast charging can cost 3× what home charging does.
Annual distancekm/yr
Years you’ll keep ityears
Petrol price₹/L
Home electricity₹/kWh
Share of charging done at home
90% home
03 — Should you switch to an EV?
A direct recommendation based on your numbers — not just a calculation result.
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What drove this recommendation
Metric
⛽ Petrol
⚡ EV
Better
📈 Sensitivity — how robust is this?
All other inputs held constant. Shows how much the conclusion shifts if one variable changes.
04 — Is your lifestyle EV-ready?
Money is only part of it. Four quick questions reveal the real-world fit.
Where do you park at home?
Workplace charging at your office?
How often do you drive 200 km+ in one day?
How comfortable are you planning charging stops on highway trips?
05 — What the numbers don’t capture
Some of this decision isn’t financial, and some of the financial risk is hard to price.
✅ In favour of the EV
Running cost is dramatically lower. Home charging works out around ₹1–1.40/km versus roughly ₹7/km for petrol — a 6–7× difference that no amount of driving style erases.
Far less to service. No engine oil, no spark plugs, no clutch, no exhaust. Regenerative braking also means brake pads last longer.
Quiet, smooth, strong off the line. Instant torque suits stop-start city traffic, and the absence of engine noise is a genuine daily quality-of-life gain.
Lower road tax and some state incentives. Several states charge reduced or zero road tax on EVs, which narrows the on-road price gap versus ex-showroom.
No E20 compatibility question. The ethanol-blend concerns affecting older petrol cars simply don’t apply.
⚠️ Against, or worth knowing
Resale is measurably worse. Petrol cars typically retain 55–65% of value after three years; EVs retain roughly 40–55%. Average EV depreciation runs about 14%/year, and some models are far steeper.
Battery replacement is a large tail risk. Out of warranty, a pack costs roughly ₹4–12 lakh — 30–40% of the car’s price. Most owners won’t face this: major brands warrant 8 years / 1.6 lakh km and real useful life is typically 10–12 years. But it isn’t zero.
No agreed way to certify battery health. India has no accepted standard for measuring State of Health for resale, which is precisely why used-EV pricing is soft and buyers are cautious.
Without home charging, the case weakens sharply. Public DC fast charging runs ₹18–25/kWh against ₹6–10 at home. If you can’t charge where you park, model that honestly above.
Long highway trips need planning. Real range is usually 20–30% below the ARAI figure, and charging stops take far longer than a fuel fill.
Home charger setup is an upfront cost. Typically ₹15,000–50,000 depending on the charger and wiring, sometimes offset by DISCOM or manufacturer support.
Where this calculation is least reliable: resale value. We apply typical depreciation rates, but EV residuals in India are genuinely unsettled — the first mainstream 2020–2023 cohort is only now reaching the used market, and values are being shaped by battery health and certification standards that don’t fully exist yet. If your ownership period is long, that uncertainty matters more than any other input here. Treat the resale line as the softest number in the table.
Prices & rates traced to provider and .gov.in sources Nothing leaves your browser No affiliate links in this comparison
EV vs petrol in India — what actually decides it
The headline case for electric cars in India is real: charged at home, an EV costs roughly ₹1 to ₹1.40 per kilometre against about ₹7 per kilometre for an equivalent petrol car. At 12,000–15,000 km a year, that alone is ₹60,000–1,00,000 saved annually. What the headline usually omits is that you paid ₹4–5 lakh more to buy the car, and you will probably get less of it back when you sell.
That is the whole tension in one sentence: a large, certain saving on energy set against a large, less-certain premium on purchase and resale. Whether the first outweighs the second is not a matter of opinion — it is arithmetic, and it turns almost entirely on two things about you rather than about the car.
Savings accrue per kilometre. The premium is fixed the day you buy. So the question is never “is the EV cheaper” — it is “cheaper by when, for how you drive.”
The two questions that decide the answer
First, how much do you drive? Savings accrue per kilometre, so the upfront premium is recovered by distance, not by time. A buyer covering 20,000 km a year reaches breakeven far sooner than one covering 6,000. This is why the calculator above asks for annual distance before anything else — it is the lever with the most leverage.
Second, can you charge where you park? Home charging at ₹6–10 per kWh is what produces the dramatic savings. Public DC fast charging at ₹18–25 per kWh still beats petrol, but it roughly triples your per-kilometre cost and pushes breakeven much further out. If you have no home charging option, the economics change from compelling to marginal — which is exactly what the home-charging slider is there to show you.
💡 The quick read
High mileage + home charging is the combination where an EV is close to a financial no-brainer. Low mileage + public charging is where a petrol car often stays cheaper across a normal ownership period. Most people are somewhere in between — which is the whole reason to run your own numbers rather than trust a rule of thumb.
Why resale value complicates it
An internal-combustion car’s used value is reasonably predictable from age and odometer. An EV’s value depends heavily on battery State of Health, and India has no universally accepted way to certify that yet. The result is that used EV pricing is soft and cautious: where a petrol car might retain 55–65% of its value after three years, an EV typically retains 40–55%. That gap is a real cost, and it partially offsets the fuel savings.
It is also the single least certain input in the whole calculation, because the used-EV market in India is still forming. The tool applies typical retention rates, but treat that line as an estimate with a wide band rather than a firm figure — and the longer you intend to keep the car, the more its uncertainty matters.
The battery question, in proportion
Out-of-warranty battery replacement is expensive — roughly ₹4–12 lakh, or 30–40% of the vehicle price. It is also uncommon within a typical ownership period: major manufacturers warrant packs for 8 years or 1,60,000 km, and real-world useful life is generally 10–12 years with 70–80% capacity retained.
⚠️ Why the tool excludes battery replacement from the total
The honest framing is a low-probability, high-cost risk rather than a scheduled expense. Adding ₹4–12 lakh to every calculation would overstate the expected cost for the large majority of owners who never face it. So the tool leaves it out of the running total and flags it separately — which is the correct way to treat a tail risk, not a line item.
The sources this tool is built on
Every rate, price and retention figure above traces to published 2026 analyses, manufacturer specifications or state DISCOM tariffs. Where values genuinely differ across sources — resale most of all — the tool uses mid-range figures and flags the uncertainty rather than smoothing it into false precision.
Running-cost benchmarks — ₹1–1.40/km EV vs ~₹7/km petrol2026 total-cost analyses converging on roughly ₹1 to ₹1.40 per kilometre for a home-charged EV against about ₹7 per kilometre for an equivalent petrol car, at typical Indian fuel prices and home tariffs.Zevpoint, Motomotar, Vahanbazaar, Carbike4u (2026)
Electricity tariffs & public charging ratesState DISCOM domestic tariff ranges of ₹4–10/kWh, public AC charging at ₹10–15/kWh, and public DC fast charging at ₹18–25/kWh. The tool uses a ₹21/kWh midpoint for the public DC portion of your charging mix.Tata Power EV, ChargeZone, Statiq, Jio-bp Pulse
Ex-showroom prices — base variants, July 2026Base-variant ex-showroom prices for every preset car, verified against current listings. On-road cost adds registration and insurance; EVs frequently attract lower or zero road tax, which the ex-showroom figure does not capture.CarDekho, ZigWheels, CarWale, Autocar India
Battery replacement cost & warranty termsOut-of-warranty pack replacement of roughly ₹4–12 lakh; typical manufacturer warranty of 8 years or 1,60,000 km; real-world useful life generally 10–12 years with 70–80% capacity retained. Excluded from the total as a low-probability tail risk.Ride N Repair, manufacturer warranty terms
Resale & depreciation — the softest number herePetrol retention of 55–65% after three years versus EV retention of roughly 40–55%; average EV depreciation near 14%/year. India has no accepted battery State-of-Health certification standard for resale, which is why used-EV pricing stays cautious.Business Standard, evcarsinindia, allaboutevs
How this is calculated: fuel, electricity and maintenance are arithmetic from your inputs. Depreciation applies typical segment retention rates, which is the least certain part — Indian EV residual values are still forming. Battery replacement is deliberately excluded from the totals and flagged separately, because within a normal ownership period it is a low-probability event and adding it to every calculation would overstate the expected cost. Prices and tariffs change; verify current figures before committing.
It depends almost entirely on annual distance and charging access, which is why this calculator asks for both. As a rough shape: a high-mileage driver with home charging often breaks even within three to five years, while a low-mileage driver relying on public fast charging may not break even at all within a normal ownership period. Use the numbers above rather than a rule of thumb.
Yes, and this is one of the less disputed advantages. There is no engine oil, no spark plugs, no clutch and no exhaust system, and regenerative braking reduces brake wear. Reported savings over five years commonly run to tens of thousands of rupees. Tyres, suspension, air-conditioning and the 12V battery still need normal attention.
Set the home-charging share above to reflect reality. Relying mainly on public DC fast charging typically triples your per-kilometre energy cost compared with home charging. EVs still come out cheaper per kilometre than petrol in most cases, but the saving may no longer be enough to recover the higher purchase price within your ownership period.
The preset prices are ex-showroom starting figures, so they exclude registration, insurance and any state incentives. EVs frequently attract lower or zero road tax, which narrows the real gap in the EV’s favour compared with what the ex-showroom numbers suggest. For a decision you’re close to making, get on-road quotes for both cars and enter those instead.
It can be, since the steep first-owner depreciation works in a second buyer’s favour. The catch is that battery health determines most of the value and there is no accepted certification standard in India yet. If you go this route, insist on an official diagnostic State of Health report from the brand’s service centre and check how much transferable battery warranty remains.
Break-even is the ownership length at which the net cash difference — purchase price plus fuel or energy plus servicing, minus resale — crosses zero in the EV’s favour. It is computed from the same figures as the cost table and the 5/7/10-year strip, so there is a single consistent break-even number rather than two that disagree. At a charging mix where the EV isn’t cheaper per kilometre, break-even is never reached, and the tool says so plainly.
Because it is a low-probability, high-cost tail risk rather than a scheduled expense. A pack lasts a typical 10–12 years and is warranted for 8 years or 1,60,000 km, so most owners never pay for one within a normal ownership window. Adding ₹4–12 lakh to every calculation would overstate the expected cost for the majority. The tool flags the risk separately so you can weigh it, without letting it distort the headline number.
