Specialists from the German automobile club ADAC decided to find out how financially justified it is to own an electric car. To do this, they took twelve electric cars available on the German market and compared them with cars running on traditional fuel.
During the study, a situation was simulated in which the car is used for four years, and the annual mileage is 15,000 kilometers. Although owners of such cars do not spend money on gasoline or diesel, and in Germany, government payments are also provided for the purchase of an electric car, the analysts' conclusions turned out to be disappointing: such cars were recognized as unprofitable.
The main factor that makes the purchase unprofitable is the significant price gap between the electric and conventional versions of the same model. For example, the Volkswagen Up! in electric form costs 11 thousand euros more than the standard version. A similar situation is with the Renault Zoe: its base version is estimated at 23,300 euros, while the Renault Clio with a gasoline engine can be bought for 16,590 euros.
As a result, as calculated by ADAC, if you take into account the purchase price, the monthly costs of maintaining an electric car still exceed the costs of conventional cars.
Thus, one kilometer of travel in an electric Ford Focus costs about 56.6 euro cents, while for the gasoline and diesel Focus this figure is 51 and 51.4 cents, respectively. The most expensive to operate was the Tesla Model S — a kilometer in it costs 1.37 euros. However, there are two exceptions to the general rule: the Kia Soul EV and the Mercedes-Benz B 250 e turn out to be cheaper for the owner than their gasoline and diesel counterparts.
