Tools
EV Running Cost Calculator
Compare the weekly and yearly cost of charging an EV against running a petrol car in NZ.
The biggest day-one win of going electric in New Zealand is running cost. Petrol here sits well above the OECD average; home electricity, especially charged overnight on an off-peak plan, is cheap. Put your own numbers in below to see the gap for your driving.
Running cost calculator
Using 20 kWh/100 km. Adjust below if it's off.
Most EV owners charge overnight on an off-peak plan. Pick a preset or enter your own rate.
EV running cost
- Electricity (40.0 kWh)
- $8.00/wk
- Road User Charges
- $15.20/wk
- Total
- $23.20/wk · $1,206/yr
vs an equivalent petrol car
Starts at the national average for 91, $3.57/L in the week of 30 Oct (MBIE).
Estimates only. Actual cost depends on driving conditions, your power plan, and current RUC + petrol prices.
How to read this
This is the same calculator you'll find on every EV listing. On a listing it pre-fills the car's energy use from its specs; here it starts from the NZ average so you can model a typical car. It compares charging cost plus Road User Charges against an equivalent petrol car, weekly and yearly. The petrol price starts at the latest national average for 91 from MBIE's weekly fuel price monitoring, so it moves with the pump.
It deliberately leaves out purchase price, servicing and public charging: those vary too much to fold into one honest number. Use it to size the running-cost gap, then weigh that against the price difference on the listings you're comparing.
For the wider case (grid mix, battery health, what to check before you buy), see Going electric in New Zealand, or browse EVs to put real prices against these numbers.