The chart below demonstrates the savings to be gained from reduced running costs of an electric car in Australila - these savings will vary from country to country depending on the price of petrol and the cost of electricity.

In general electric cars are between 70% and 80% less costly to run than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. This page does not examine full ownership costs and focuses on fuel expenditure. However fuel savings are just some of the savings to be expected from electric cars - they need much less servicing (no oil or filter changes) and have few moving parts.

In the start stop nature of city driving electric vehicles with regenerative braking have additional cost advantages over petrol driven cars as much of the kinetic energy can be captured to recharge the batteries.

As the following chart illustrates, in Australia electric vehicles can be run on clean, renewable energy for the additonal cost of just over $2.00 per week - less than the price of a cup of coffee. Even with this additional cost, electric cars are still much cheaper to run than petrol vehicles.

Society in general also saves from a decrease in the externalised costs associated with combustion engines - better air quality, reduced health costs and less environmental damage.

The internal combustion engine (ICE) has been in development since the 1860's and its production costs due to efficiencies of scale are currently less than those of electric vehicles.

This situation is set to change over the coming decades as more research in battery technologies (already underway) and large scale production drives costs down.

There are hundreds of moving parts in a modern combustion engine with many functions computer controlled. In comparison there is basically a single moving part in an electric motor. More moving parts means more wear and tear and more things to go wrong.

For example in electric vehicles the following parts are unnecessary; starter motor, air filter, air intake manifold, fuel lines, fuel filters, fuel pumps, fuel tank, carburetors (or fuel injection system), water pump, coolant pipes, radiator, fans, motor oil tank, alternator, various sensors and management devices. That's why combustion engines need regular servicing, oil and filter changes etc. all adding to the running costs.

With a growing demand for oil and little likelihood of any future large and easily accessible discoveries (see Peak oil) the price of petrol is expected to increase significantly over coming decades.

This economic rationale together with environmental imperatives now drives the change to electric vehicles.

Click on the Fuel Savings Calculator to work out how much you can save on your vehicle's running costs by switching to electric.