Gas vs EV: Is It CHEAPER to Buy a Hybrid, PHEV or EV With Gas Prices Skyrocketing?

[00:00] Hey, Andre, with the price of gas

[00:01] through the roof, have you ever

[00:02] considered how much money you would save

[00:04] if you went all electric versus a

[00:06] traditional internal combustion car, a

[00:09] hybrid, or plug-in hybrid? I wonder it

[00:11] every day because the price of gas and

[00:13] also diesel is going through the roof,

[00:15] like you said. And does it make sense to

[00:17] buy electric right now or not?

[00:19] >> Yeah, and at the end of this video,

[00:20] you're going to know exactly over 5

[00:22] years how much money you would save if

[00:23] you did buy one or all four of those

[00:27] cars. So, let's start with some basic

[00:28] caveats because there are a lot of

[00:30] caveats here, and that is that the

[00:31] average price of gas as of this video is

[00:33] $4.52 a gallon. That's for the regular

[00:36] gas, not even premium.

[00:37] >> Right. Right. So, that's the number that

[00:39] we're going off of. Now, what we're

[00:40] going to do is we're going to look at

[00:42] the 5-year cost of driving these

[00:44] different kinds of cars and see how much

[00:46] it would cost you in terms of fueling

[00:48] them up. So, let's start with uh the

[00:52] electric car. We picked the Tesla Model

[00:54] Y because it is the most popular car

[00:56] in the world, at least as far as

[00:58] electricity Yep. Yep. Yep. Uh so, the

[01:01] cost of the vehicle, uh we're picking a

[01:02] premium cuz it's all-wheel drive, and

[01:04] all these cars are going to be all-wheel

[01:05] drive, is uh $50,000.

[01:07] >> Okay. 6 $50,600.

[01:09] >> About 50. Yep. The range is 327 miles.

[01:12] Uh

[01:13] battery capacity is 81 kWh.

[01:16] Uh and it charges up to 250 kW on a V3

[01:20] or V4 supercharger. Uh and the running

[01:22] cost, now this is where it gets really

[01:23] caviati, uh depends on how you charge

[01:25] it. So, if you charge it at home, we're

[01:27] going with $0.19 a or 19 cents a kWh.

[01:31] >> And that's kind of a national average

[01:33] based on some Federal Reserve data. Yep.

[01:35] If you're supercharging it, it would be

[01:37] 30 cents a kWh. Electrify America, 48

[01:40] cents a kWh. And EVgo, 25 cents a kWh.

[01:43] But, for the purpose of this video and

[01:45] this calculation, we're going for home

[01:46] charging cuz I think most people charge

[01:49] at home. Yeah, because you're not doing

[01:51] a road trip every day, right? But,

[01:52] you're mostly commuting. So, home

[01:54] charging, I think, makes a lot of sense.

[01:56] All right. so just some quick number

[01:58] crunching that Zach did here and that is

[02:01] using an efficiency of 27 kilowatt hours

[02:06] per 100 miles and that's an EPA number.

[02:08] Okay, for the Model Y. Yep, and the

[02:10] average miles driven once again is

[02:13] 13,500

[02:16] or in other words 3,645 kilowatt hours.

[02:19] This is based on the Federal Highway

[02:21] Administration. So this is not the

[02:22] numbers we're making up. It's based on

[02:24] some data. Okay, so let's talk about

[02:27] 5-year charging cost. If you charge it

[02:29] at a supercharger for 5 years, it would

[02:31] cost you $5,467.

[02:33] Okay. Um, if you use some of the

[02:36] competitors, it would be up to $9,112

[02:40] and if you charged it at home, $3,462.

[02:45] For 5 years, I really like the last

[02:46] number you said, $3,462

[02:50] to run a car for 5 years. That sounds

[02:53] incredible. So the total purchase cost

[02:55] plus running charge is $54,092

[02:58] and some cents. Okay. Let's go from most

[03:01] electric to least electric. So the next

[03:02] one that has the most electrification

[03:04] would be a pure plug-in hybrid and for

[03:07] that one we're going to use the RAV4 XSE

[03:10] plug-in hybrid starts at about 49,295

[03:14] or about the same as a Tesla. I know it

[03:16] is quite pricey but also the RAV4 is one

[03:18] of the most popular vehicles right now.

[03:20] It's actually for 2025 was the most

[03:22] popular car. Yeah, so it's it's you

[03:24] know, all-wheel drive versus all-wheel

[03:26] drive.

[03:28] So they are very comparable in price,

[03:30] very comparable in terms of their number

[03:32] of wheels being driven. The driving

[03:34] range on the plug-in hybrid used to be

[03:36] called the prime is 650 miles.

[03:38] >> That's huge.

[03:39] >> That's a Toyota estimate. Electric range

[03:40] is 52 miles, once again a Toyota

[03:42] estimate. Battery capacity is 22.7

[03:44] kilowatt hours.

[03:46] Uh, and the average efficiency is 43.65

[03:49] kilowatt hours per 100 miles based on

[03:51] the manufacturer. Fuel tank size 15

[03:53] gallons or 14.5 and charging capability

[03:56] up to 50 kilowatts on a DC fast chargers

[03:58] at 11 kilowatts on a level two or home

[04:00] charger. All right, so let's talk about

[04:01] running costs. That's the more important

[04:03] one. Yeah, exactly. And after 5 years

[04:06] and using once again all the assumptions

[04:08] that we have made already. So a 5-year

[04:11] fueling cost including electricity would

[04:14] be $6,681.

[04:17] Um, actually so that's almost double

[04:21] what a Tesla would be.

[04:22] >> Yeah, because now you're figuring the

[04:23] price of gas. Yeah. All right, Andre,

[04:26] assuming the same numbers so we're going

[04:27] to get out of the weeds a little bit

[04:29] here. Let's go to the next least

[04:30] electric one which would be a RAV4

[04:32] Hybrid. How much would that cost to run

[04:34] for 5 years? And now it does not have an

[04:36] electric plug. That's the difference,

[04:38] right? So there's no way to plug it in.

[04:40] It's just a hybrid. Um, so after 5 years

[04:43] according to our data here, $7,441.46.

[04:48] So that's about well, about $800

[04:52] over 5 years than a plug-in hybrid. And

[04:55] then finally Zach threw in just because

[04:58] most people are still buying traditional

[05:00] ice engines the Honda CRV EXL which is a

[05:04] regular gas-powered car. This is cheaper

[05:08] of course 38,350

[05:10] driving range 406 miles average fuel

[05:12] economy according to the EPA 29

[05:14] MPG and fuel tank size 14 which means in

[05:18] terms of numbers Andre Overall after 5

[05:20] years and this is no electricity

[05:22] involved in this particular CRV, 10,520

[05:27] dollars

[05:29] over 5 years in fuel costs according to

[05:32] today's price. All right, Andre, let's

[05:34] wrap this up and do kind of the

[05:35] takeaway. How much would you save if you

[05:37] went all electric? So let's start with

[05:39] the Tesla Model Y. Purchase cost like I

[05:41] said is about $50,000 and the cost of

[05:43] running that for

[05:45] a 5 years would be? 3,462

[05:48] bucks. Okay, now if you decided to go

[05:51] plug-in hybrid with the RAV4, which

[05:53] actually as tested would also cost

[05:55] around $50,000, how much would that be?

[05:57] $6,681

[06:00] or about $3,200

[06:02] difference.

[06:04] Yeah, it's substantial. All right, and

[06:06] then how about the regular old RAV4

[06:08] hybrid, the one that everybody knows?

[06:09] Yes 7,441.

[06:12] So, actually not that much different

[06:14] from a plug-in hybrid, actually. Yeah,

[06:16] so you're not getting that much by going

[06:18] plug-in hybrid. Once again, lots of

[06:19] caveats here. And finally, if you went

[06:22] with the cheapest car, uh the CRV Oof,

[06:25] uh you're you're you're spending $10,520

[06:28] on fuel. So, compared to the Tesla, it's

[06:30] almost 7,000 more. Yeah.

[06:32] Yeah, that's a huge difference. Yeah, so

[06:34] there you have it. Over a five-year

[06:36] period, you will save money. Now, of

[06:38] course, the purchase price of these cars

[06:40] varies greatly. So, for instance, the

[06:42] CRV is 38,000. Uh so, you're going to

[06:44] spend

[06:45] almost 12,000 more by buying the Tesla.

[06:47] Exactly. So, the money you spend

[06:50] initially to buy the Tesla is actually

[06:52] what you would be spending on fueling

[06:54] the Honda. So, it could actually break

[06:56] even in the end. But, I'm wondering,

[06:59] dude, is a plug-in hybrid really worth

[07:01] it? Because there's not a huge

[07:02] difference between that and the regular

[07:04] hybrid. I would just go regular hybrid,

[07:06] maybe. Yeah, or you can go the other

[07:08] way. I mean, you don't have to get the

[07:09] Model Y. You can get a Nissan Leaf SV.

[07:12] Uh those start uh uh you know much less

[07:15] than the Tesla.

[07:16] >> Yeah, about $35,000. And if you want

[07:18] all-wheel drive, you can go with the

[07:19] Hyundai Ioniq 5 SEL, uh which is still

[07:22] $9,000 less than a Tesla Model Y. So,

[07:24] there are a lot of different choices

[07:27] here, but I think

[07:28] the the takeaway for me, Andre, is that

[07:31] the higher the price of gas, the more

[07:33] money you save by going all-electric,

[07:35] which I think is pretty much what we had

[07:36] assumed at the beginning of this video.

[07:38] Yeah, and an electric vehicle versus an

[07:40] internal combustion vehicle, if the

[07:42] technology gets to the point where

[07:44] they're the same price, the electric

[07:46] vehicle wins on on cost.

[07:48] >> And also on maintenance. Yes. Because

[07:50] there are certainly no oil to change,

[07:52] less brakes to change,

[07:54] and then of course the question is how

[07:55] much is the range anxiety,

[07:59] you know, playing into your calculation.

[08:01] Do you have a place to charge it? In

[08:02] other words, are you living in a house

[08:04] where you can plug it in at home, or are

[08:05] you living in an apartment? Do you have

[08:07] to go public charging? So, like I said,

[08:09] this video has so many caveats, but I

[08:12] think if you kind of look at it,

[08:14] it makes sense that the more electric

[08:16] you go, the more money you save on fuel

[08:18] at least over a 5-year period. And if

[08:21] they want to see more videos, Andre,

[08:23] alltfl.com.

[08:25] And thank you, Zach, for putting this

[08:26] together. My mind is reeling with all

[08:28] these numbers. I hope we didn't confuse

[08:29] you too much. We'll see you guys next

[08:30] time. Ciao.