Petrol drivers in the UK are on course to spend more than double what electric car owners pay to charge this year, according to new figures. The same pattern is showing up in the United States, Australia and across Europe.
The calculations come from The Electric Car Scheme, a salary sacrifice provider. The average petrol car will cost £1,353 to run in 2026, or £3.71 a day. An equivalent electric car charged at home on a standard tariff will cost £592, or £1.62 a day.
The gap is wide enough that the crossover point has already arrived. By 9 June, the average petrol driver will have spent more on fuel than an EV owner will spend on charging across the whole of 2026. Everything a petrol driver pays at the pump after that date is, in effect, the extra cost of running a combustion engine.
How Were The Figures Worked Out?
The Electric Car Scheme based its sums on 7,400 miles a year, the Department for Transport’s average annual mileage. The petrol driver pays 156p a litre, the average pump price so far in 2026. The EV driver pays 8p a mile, based on electricity at 24.67p per kilowatt hour, the level of Ofgem’s price cap.
Petrol prices have climbed sharply this year. The Times reports that the rise follows conflict in the Middle East, with the average pump price reaching 158p a litre on 5 June, up from 133p at the end of February. The RAC supplied those figures.
Thom Groot of The Electric Car Scheme said the economics keep moving one way. “Petrol drivers are now spending the equivalent of a full year of electric vehicle running costs before we hit summer,” he said. He added that the crossover has been arriving earlier each year, on 3 July in 2025 and 1 August in 2023.
Does Charging Location Change The Result?
It does. The headline saving assumes home charging on a standard tariff. Public charging costs far more. Zapmap data cited by The Times puts the average public charger at 54p per kWh, rising to about 76p at a rapid charge point. Drivers without a driveway, who depend on public charging, see a smaller saving or none at all.
There is an upfront cost too. Installing a home charge point costs between £800 and £1,200, according to the report.
What About The Cost Of Buying The Car?
The purchase gap has closed. The average new car now costs £43,049, slightly below the £43,178 average for a new petrol car, according to Auto Trader figures in the report. Manufacturer discounts have driven EV prices down to roughly parity.
The used market still favours petrol on price. The average used electric car costs £23,555, against £14,988 for a used petrol car and £14,597 for a diesel. Some of that gap reflects the younger age of the used EV fleet.
Demand is holding up. There were 43,931 new electric cars registered in May, up 34% on the same month last year.
Do Other Countries Report The Same Thing?
Yes, and the direction is consistent. In the United States, used-EV marketplace Recharged calculates that a petrol car costs around 15 to 20 cents per mile in fuel during 2026, while a comparable EV charged mostly at home lands between 4 and 8 cents. Over 12,000 miles a year, that gap reaches roughly $900.
Kelley Blue Book reports a similar split. Home charging costs an average of $5.26 to cover 100 miles, against $12.80 for petrol, citing analysis by The New York Times. As in Britain, public charging reverses the result. Relying on public chargers raises the average to $15.62 per 100 miles, more than a petrol car. The firm Energy Innovation found that every EV model in every US state was cheaper to fuel than a petrol equivalent, even as far back as 2023, when oil prices were significantly lower.
Australia tells the same story over the longer term. Energy retailer Amber reports that EVs work out cheaper across several ongoing cost categories, drawing on Electric Vehicle Council survey data from real drivers. Analysis by Gridly found that a mainstream EV such as a Tesla Model Y or BYD Seal costs A$8,000 to A$18,000 less to own over five years than an equivalent petrol SUV, once fuel, servicing, tyres, insurance and depreciation are counted. Fuel alone accounts for A$8,000 to A$9,250 of that over five years.
In Europe, the long-running LeasePlan Car Cost Index found mid-size EVs cheaper to own than petrol and diesel equivalents in 14 European countries, including the UK. The study noted that no cost-competitive EV existed in the executive segment at the time of that finding.
What Should Drivers Take From This?
The savings are real, but they depend on circumstances. Drivers who charge at home capture the full benefit. Those who rely on public rapid charging may see the gap close or reverse, in Britain and the US alike.
The reports also share a limit. Many come from companies with a commercial interest in EV adoption, including The Electric Car Scheme. The figures count fuel and charging, not the full cost of ownership.
Three factors sit outside the headline comparison. Depreciation is the largest single cost for any car, and new EVs have lost value faster than petrol equivalents in recent years, though used EV values have begun to steady. Insurance often runs higher for an EV, reflecting battery repair costs and a smaller specialist repair network, although the gap is narrowing. A road charge is also coming. From April 2028, EV drivers in the UK will pay 3p per mile on top of road tax, which trims the running cost advantage without erasing it.
The broad conclusion is consistent across four markets. On fuel alone, an electric car charged mostly at home costs about half as much to run as petrol in 2026. The question for most drivers is whether their charging setup lets them capture that saving.
