Owning an electric car really does save money, Consumer Reports finds

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If you bought a Tesla Model 3 instead of a BMW 3 Series or Audi A4, you’d probably save $15,000 over the total lifetime of the vehicle. That’s according to a new analysis from Consumer Reports, which examines the total cost of ownership for electric vehicles—both battery EVs and plug-in hybrid EVs—versus comparable internal combustion engine vehicles.

CR found that much lower maintenance costs and the lower price of electricity compared to gasoline more than offsets the higher purchase price of a new BEV compared to an ICE.

Operating and maintenance costs were calculated using data from annual reliability surveys conducted by CR in 2019 and 2020. Among other data collected, the survey asked CR members to estimate their automotive maintenance and repair costs and driven mileage over the previous 12 months, as well as total mileage of their vehicle. (CR filtered out outliers who drove fewer than 2,000 miles (3,200km) or more than 60,000 miles (96,560km) in 12 months, as well as vehicles with more than $20,000 in maintenance costs or vehicles with more than 200,000 miles (322,000km) on the odometer.)

BEVs and PHEVs really do cost less to maintain

As expected, CR’s data confirms earlier work—lifetime maintenance costs for BEVs and PHEVs really are about half the cost for an ICE vehicle. For the first 50,000 miles (80,500km), the maintenance and repair costs for a BEV are just $0.012 per mile; for a PHEV it’s $0.021, and $0.028 for ICE. For the next 50,000

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