About

Why TrueTravelCost exists

It started with one question: is it actually worth selling a petrol or diesel car to switch to electric?

The question behind the site

Cars are going through the biggest change in a generation. Electric vehicles are everywhere in the news, in showrooms and in government targets, and anyone who owns a combustion car is now asked, sooner or later, whether they should swap it.

The advice on offer tends to fall into two camps: enthusiasm on one side, scepticism on the other. Neither answers the practical question. Would switching actually cost you less, or more, given the car you own today, the way you drive and the prices you really pay?

TrueTravelCost was built first to answer that for one person’s decision, then opened up so anyone can test their own.

Why fuel versus electricity is not enough

The obvious comparison is the price of a litre of fuel against the price of a kilowatt-hour. It is a useful start, but it leaves out most of what a car costs. Selling a car you already own, buying a different one, depreciation, insurance, servicing and tyres all change the picture, and how much they matter depends heavily on how far you drive each year.

So a car that is cheaper to run is not automatically cheaper to own, and the reverse can be true too. The only honest way to find out is to put every cost side by side, for the same journey, using your own numbers.

What the calculator does

Compare up to three vehicles

Cost the same journey in a petrol, diesel, hybrid or electric car and see them next to each other.

Count the whole cost

Fuel or electricity, maintenance, tyres and tolls, with ownership costs such as depreciation, insurance, registration and finance if you want them included.

Use your own numbers

Every default can be overwritten, including your real electricity price if you charge at home.

Check a reimbursement rate

The same idea works for employers and staff: does a fixed rate per kilometre or mile cover what the car really costs?

What it does not do

TrueTravelCost will not tell you what to buy. It measures money, not emissions, and it does not weigh up things like range, charging access or how you feel about driving. Every figure is an estimate built from public data and the values you enter, not a quote or a guarantee. It is not financial, tax or legal advice.

The numbers are calculated from sourced data and your inputs. They are not generated by AI.

Where the numbers come from

European fuel prices come from the EU Commission Weekly Oil Bulletin (via fuel-prices.eu, CC BY 4.0). Fuel consumption comes from fueleconomy.gov where it is available. Default servicing, tyre and ownership figures are anchored to AAA’s Your Driving Costs 2025 and scaled for other regions, so treat them as starting points. The methodology page explains each step, and how it works walks through the calculation.

Testing your own switch

Enter a journey you make often, add your current car and the electric car you are considering, switch on ownership costs, and replace the defaults with what you actually pay for fuel and electricity. Then compare the cost per kilometre and per trip, and think about how many kilometres you drive in a year.

See what your journey really costs

Free to use, with no sign-up.

Open the calculator