Side by side on the dealer lot, a gas car usually carries the lower sticker price, so it is easy to assume it is the cheaper car to own.

Run the numbers across five or ten years, though, and the picture can flip. Fuel, maintenance, purchase price, and resale value all add up differently for electric and gas cars, and your own driving habits decide which one comes out ahead.

Fuel is where the gap starts

The average US household pays roughly 14 to 16 cents per kilowatt-hour at home, and a typical electric vehicle (EV) uses about 0.3 kWh per mile. That works out to around 4 to 5 cents per mile. A gas sedan getting 30 mpg at $3.50 per gallon runs about 12 cents per mile.

Drive 12,000 miles a year and you are looking at roughly $500 in electricity versus $1,400 in fuel, a saving that an owner who charges mostly at home keeps every year. Public fast chargers change the math, sometimes costing 40 to 50 cents per kWh, so access to home charging matters a lot.

Maintenance favors the electric side

An EV needs no oil changes, spark plugs, or transmission fluid, and it has far fewer moving parts than a gas car. Over five years, owners typically spend a few hundred dollars on tires, cabin filters, and brake fluid.

A comparable gas car usually needs $1,500 to $2,500 in scheduled service over the same stretch, including oil changes every 7,500 miles and a timing belt around 100,000 miles on many models. EV brakes also last longer because regenerative braking, where the motor slows the car and recovers energy, does most of the work.

Consumer Reports senior transportation policy analyst Chris Harto presented the group's study of its reliability survey data, which found EV drivers spend about half as much on maintenance and repair over a vehicle's life. Over a 200,000-mile lifetime, that meant about 3 cents per mile for EVs versus 6 cents for gas cars, with simpler powertrains and no oil changes as the likely reasons.

Purchase price still stings

This is the part where many buyers trip up. A new EV often costs $5,000 to $10,000 more than a similar gas model before any incentives. The US federal clean vehicle credit of up to $7,500 is no longer available for new purchases, though some states still offer their own rebates.

Without incentives, you may need to keep the car six or seven years before fuel and maintenance savings catch up. Buying used narrows the gap fast, since depreciation hits EVs hard in the first three years.

Batteries and resale

Most modern EV batteries carry an 8-year or 100,000-mile warranty, and real-world data from fleets shows they often hold 90 percent capacity past 150,000 miles. Replacement out of warranty can run $8,000 to $15,000, which is the number that scares buyers.

Resale values have been uneven. Early Nissan Leaf models lost value quickly, while the Tesla Model 3 has held up better than many predicted. Gas cars depreciate too, just more predictably.

Your driving decides the winner

If you drive 20,000 miles a year and can charge at home, the EV usually wins on total cost within five years. If you drive 6,000 miles a year and rely on public charging, the gas car often stays cheaper. Most drivers fall somewhere in between, so the answer depends on matching the car to how you actually drive.

Before you compare two models, write down three numbers: your yearly miles, your home electricity rate, and the incentives you actually qualify for. Plug them into the per-mile costs above to estimate a five-year total for each car, which tells you more than the sticker price or any headline.