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 (NZ average — adjust below).
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
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.
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.