Tesla vs Gas Cost Calculator
The honest total cost of ownership — financing, charging, insurance, depreciation, Texas EV fees, and the dead $7,500 credit all included. Built on real 2026 numbers, not Tesla's marketing math.
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Tesla Owner Essentials
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What this Tesla cost-of-ownership calculator actually includes
Most "Tesla savings" calculators only compare fuel to electricity and stop there — which is exactly how you get a rosy number that real ownership never matches. This one models the full total cost of ownership (TCO) for a Tesla versus a comparable gas car, year by year, and tells you the break-even year — the point where the Tesla becomes the cheaper car to own once everything is counted.
The line items competitors leave out
- The $7,500 federal EV credit is gone. It was terminated on September 30, 2025. We default it to $0 — if a calculator still auto-applies it, its numbers are out of date.
- Texas charges EVs directly: a $400 upfront registration surcharge plus $200 every year. That's a real cost a gas car doesn't pay.
- Insurance. Teslas typically cost more to insure than an equivalent gas crossover — we model the gap.
- Depreciation, front-loaded. New cars lose the most value in year one (Teslas especially), so we use a realistic curve, not a flat average.
- Financing. Tesla's low promotional APR vs a typical gas-car loan rate changes the math a lot — both are editable.
- FSD as a subscription. Full Self-Driving is now $99/month, not a one-time purchase. Toggle it in.
Two things this calculator does that no other one does
Real-bill charging cost. Your true cost to charge at home is the marginal rate — energy charge plus delivery charge — not a flat national average. Enter your actual rate for an honest charging number.
Time-value of maintenance. Gas cars don't just cost money to maintain — they cost hours (oil changes, inspections, waiting rooms). Turn on "value my maintenance time" to price those hours at your wage. EVs barely have any.
How break-even is calculated
We compute each vehicle's true net cost of ownership through every year: depreciation plus financing interest plus running costs (energy, maintenance, insurance, fees), minus the resale value you'd recover if you sold. The break-even year is when the Tesla's net cost drops at or below the gas car's. Because the Tesla usually costs more up front but less to run — and holds its value differently — the crossover is the number that actually matters.
Honest by design: at low mileage, with no incentives and steep first-year depreciation, a cheap efficient gas car can win — and this calculator will tell you so. See the full methodology and sources →