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What a car costs to own

Purchase, depreciation, energy, maintenance, insurance, tax and optional financing over three, five or ten years. Change any figure and the result changes with it.

The defaults are placeholders, not market observations, and each one says so where it is listed. Replace them with your own numbers and the result becomes yours. The method is written out in full.

Cost of owning this car for 5 years: €37,092
A year, on average: €7,418
per 100 km: €49
Worth at the end: €18,000

Over 75,000 kilometres. Every figure comes from the values on the left and the defaults listed with them. Nothing here is a market observation.

Market and period

Market

Netherlands

United States

Changing market replaces every figure with that market's defaults, in that market's units. Nothing is converted behind your back.

How long you keep it

3 years

5 years

10 years

The car

Powertrain

Electric

Plug-in hybrid

Petrol

Purchase price

EUR

Worth at the end

%

Share of the purchase price. Currently €18,000.

How it loses value

Faster at first

Evenly

Both end at the same value. Only the shape of the curve between differs.

Driving

Distance a year

km

Electric consumption

kWh/100 km

Measured at the battery, under WLTP.

Energy prices

Electricity

EUR/kWh

Use the rate on your own bill.

Charging loss

%

Energy that leaves the socket but never reaches the battery. You pay for it either way.

Running costs

Maintenance a year

EUR

Insurance a year

EUR

Road tax a year

EUR

Anything else, a year

EUR

Parking, tolls, a subscription.

Paid once

Registration

EUR

Anything else, once

EUR

A home charger, winter tyres.

Inflation

Running costs rise by

% a year

Applied to energy, maintenance, insurance and tax. Never to depreciation or loan interest, which would count the same effect twice.

Financing

I am borrowing to buy this car

Only the interest is added. The money borrowed is the purchase price arriving by another route, and it is already counted as depreciation.

Where the money goes

Totals across the whole 5 years, largest first.

Depreciation: €22,00059%
Energy: €4,68413%
Insurance: €4,16311%
Road tax: €3,64310%
Maintenance: €2,6027%

Year by year

Each row adds up to its own total, and the last column is the running sum. Columns that are zero throughout are left out.

Cost per year over 5 years, by category, with a running total.
Year	Depreciation	Energy	Maintenance	Insurance	Road tax	Year total	Running total
1	€5,904	€900	€500	€800	€700	€8,804	€8,804
2	€5,033	€918	€510	€816	€714	€7,991	€16,795
3	€4,290	€936	€520	€832	€728	€7,307	€24,102
4	€3,657	€955	€531	€849	€743	€6,734	€30,836
5	€3,117	€974	€541	€866	€758	€6,256	€37,092
Total	€22,000	€4,684	€2,602	€4,163	€3,643	€37,092	€37,092

Every assumption behind that number

Nothing is hidden and nothing is estimated into a gap. Edit any figure on the left and it moves from a default to your own input.

Marker: You enter it
Marker: Documented default
Marker: Cited dataset

Purchase price€40,000: What you pay for the car, including options and delivery.
Residual value45.0% — €18,000: Share of the purchase price the car is worth at the end of the term. Placeholder, not researched per model.
Annual distance15,000 km: How far you drive in a year.
Electric consumption18.0 kWh/100 km: Measured at the battery. Will come from the catalogue once it exists; until then it is a placeholder.
Electricity price€0.30 per kWh: Placeholder, not a market observation. Use the rate on your own bill.
Charging loss10.0%: Energy lost between the socket and the battery. You pay for it, the car does not store it.
Maintenance€500 a year: Servicing, tyres and wear, per year. Placeholder.
Insurance€800 a year: Placeholder. Premiums vary far too much to guess; use your own quote.
Road tax€700 a year: Placeholder. Real rates depend on the vehicle and the region, and arrive with the catalogue.
Yearly inflation2.0% a year: Applied to running costs only, never to depreciation or loan interest.