Where is it actually cheaper to drive an electric car?
Economist reports on what countries are less costly when driving EVs. If you go to the Economist site, you can find more countries by hovering over each colored circle.
And is it always greener? Our ranking shows how costs and emissions vary.
OWNERS OF ELECTRIC vehicles (EVs) have a lot to brag about. Their cars are quieter, smoother and nippier than petrol counterparts. Low running costs and environmental impact of EVs are also part of their appeal. But how cheap and green they are varies significantly by country. The price of energy and the share of it produced by renewables will determine whether EVs have advantages over the standard car. Our ranking of 122 countries below show where it makes the most sense to go electric.
Our ranking is based on the fuel efficiency of eight car models that are available with electric and petrol motors (such as Hyundai’s Kona, a small SUV, and the Mini Cooper, a city car), or where there are close equivalents. This ensured that we were not introducing any bias in our measures by comparing cars of different sizes or specifications (although electric versions of conventional models can be less efficient than cars designed specifically as EVs).
Where 98% of electricity comes from renewable sources, Norway is one of the top performers on both measures. Driving an EV there cuts fuel costs by about 83% and emissions by 98% compared with driving a petrol car. For the average Norwegian driver, that translates to an annual saving of $1,500 and emissions equivalent to taking a flight from Oslo to Sydney. Norwegians have the highest share of EVs in the world: in 2023 83% of new cars were electric, well above the European average of 15%.
Where less than 10% of energy consumption comes from renewables, Petro-states such as Uzbekistan have much lower carbon savings (9%). And drivers in western Europe have the least to gain financially. High electricity prices—elevated since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine—mean that EV drivers in Britain, Belgium, Italy, Ireland and Germany saved less than 50% per mile, based on residential energy prices in 2023.
The ranking does not always correlate with adoption. Paraguay, for example, ranks higher than Norway on both measures, but poor infrastructure and a lack of charging stations has put people off buying EVs. The higher costs of new EVs compared with standard cars will also price people out. China, meanwhile, is the world’s largest producer of EVs and makes up the bulk of global sales. It ranks highly on cost savings but it is in the bottom quarter of countries in terms of carbon savings. (China’s dependence on coal means that driving EVs only cuts CO2 emissions by half.)
Running costs are not the only factor when choosing between an EV and a conventional car. The EVs in our index cost about $7,000 more to buy than petrol-powered equivalents and building them produces 60% more CO2, because of the materials needed for their batteries. Excluding government incentives, Americans would need to drive their EV nearly 80,000 miles—which would take the average driver about six years—before seeing financial savings from an EV. They might feel smug for many of them though: the carbon emissions are offset after just 12,000 miles. Prices for new EVs are already falling, and government incentives and new regulations will make EVs more attractive. But some countries will still get more out of their EVs than others.
This study should include other costs like tires, maintenance and insurance costs. If incremental weight increases any fees, that should be included. Not sure if these costs are that well documented yet, but they are directly related to operating.
I was e-mailing with a friend in France who worked in energy sector and had this idea about savings. If a country has a high tax on gas, once EVs really begin to cut into that revenue, they will devise taxes on EV operations or simply on energy to recover that revenue. He also thought that in places without a high level of nuclear power, particularly with solar as a big slice of renewable, that night charging cars would experience an effective rate hike over time. The investment in storage technologies isn’t cheap and if energy consumption in off-peak solar hours increases, well something has to pay for it.