Electric vs hybrid

Here are some basic thumb rules how to compare run costs between electric and hybrid. You have to first find equivalent measuring. It might be liters per 100km with hybrid cars. Electric cars can be measured same way but liters are changed to electricity. Electric cars have same kind of test cycles than conventional cars do. Speaking solely of electric car range is bit misleading. That indicates size of battery pack among with consumption. Better to check consumption side to side.


If conventional car takes 5 liters per 100km. And one liter costs 1,4 euros, price for 100km is then 7 euros.

If electric car consumption is 20kWh per 100km, you have to know your local electricity prices to do the math. In my example kWh price is 0,13€. With that then price is 20 * 0,13 = 2,6€.

So with current prices it is very obvious that electric cars run costs are much cheaper than any of new conventional cars. Electric cars even surpasses new Prius in run costs. During my Prius test drive I achieved 3,4l/100km, which reverts to 4,76€ for 100km distance.

Of course when comparing hybrids and electric cars to each other, consumption is not only thing. Car in overall, how it fits to you/your family situation. Do you need to carry stuff, are you happy with shorter ranges, are you able and willing to charge car very often etc. Range for new Prius is some where near 1300km ,when electric car distance usually is near 200km. Though Tesla do have much greater range, some where near 400km.

There is also very many plus sides which makes electric cars even more interesting. Personally I have not (yet) tested any of these electric cars. But I am planning to test drive eGolf and Nissan Leaf some where near future. Electric cars as a technology are very interesting. For plus sides charging at home is very tempting. And probably driving during winter is not that harmful as for the conventional car. Of course consumption is greater during winter but so it is for every car.

For me it looks that electric cars are still evolving so much, investing money to that would be too "scary".  Today I would buy non-plugin/plugin hybrid instead of pure electric car. Maybe tomorrow or after 5 or 10 years electric car is the only reasonable choice.

Other thing to follow besides electric cars progress is how taxation will evolve. Because today it seems too tempting option. So when these things starts to get too trendy, I bet taxation will be made so that they lose their advantage.

So choosing today already heavily taxa-ted technology with low consumption might be a good choice for next 10 years. Let's see!