Running costs
Your running costs, answered.
You drive about 13,000 km a year, keep cars for 5 years, and you’re shopping for a .
Drag the underlined numbers. Everything on this page answers instantly.
$1,130 less per year
The electric mid-size SUV is around $22 a week cheaper to run, fuel, charging and servicing included. Estimate range $634 to $1,593 per year.
Question one
Are you comparing the right two?
The whole class at your driving, cheapest first. Tap any row to send it into the duel against the current winner.
Electric
Charging $858 · Servicing $250
$1,108
$21/week
$954–$1,325
Plug-in hybrid
Fuel + charging $1,227 · Servicing $472
$1,699
$33/week
$1,288–$2,143
Hybrid
Fuel $1,277 · Servicing $450
$1,727
$33/week
$1,500–$1,985
Petrol
Fuel $1,788 · Servicing $450
$2,238
$43/week
$1,959–$2,547
Diesel
Fuel $1,754 · Servicing $518
$2,272
$44/week
$1,980–$2,596
Question two · How much is riding on this?
$5,652
What choosing the electric over the petrol keeps in your pocket over 5 years of ownership.
Working: ($2,238 − $1,108) a year × 5 years, at your settings.
Question three
Is it worth paying more up front?
Say the electric costs $8,000 more to buy. At your driving it pays itself back in about 7.1 years, then saves $1,130 every year after.
Question four
What would change the answer?
We ran the what-ifs before you asked. Tap one to apply it to the whole page; tap again to undo.
We'd run the electric. It leads the class at your driving, undercuts the plug-in hybrid by about $592 a year, and none of the what-ifs above change that verdict cheaply. If a quote puts its price premium beyond the payback you'd wear, that is the moment to reconsider, not before.
The Cars Like read
Question five
Where do these numbers come from?
Nothing on this page is invented. Every preset below is a sourced average, and every one is yours to overwrite: type over a number and each answer above recalculates.
A litre of 91 unleaded costs cents in Sydney this week.
NSW FuelCheck
Sydney-metro median, observed 2026-08-17. Our ranges cover the ±10% discount cycle.
Charging at home costs cents a kWh.
AER / market offers
AER and market offers, 2026-07. We assume 80% of charging happens at home (the rest at public DC rates) and add 10% for charging losses.
The average petrol mid-size SUV uses L/100 km and costs $ a year to service.
Cars Like database
Median of 159 mid-size SUVs on sale, official figures uplifted 15% toward real-world use. Servicing uses typical capped-price costs for this class.
The average electric mid-size SUV uses Wh/km and costs $ a year to service.
Cars Like database
Median of 77 mid-size SUVs on sale, official figures uplifted 15% toward real-world use. Servicing uses typical capped-price costs for this class.
The fine print
- Excluded: purchase price and depreciation (use the price-difference payback), insurance, registration, tyres and tolls. They vary more by driver than by powertrain.
Estimates only, NSW basis, not financial advice. Presets refreshed weekly; this set was built 2026-08-17. Read more about how we work.