Variability in total cost of vehicle ownership across vehicle and user profiles

Abstract

Widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is a common and critical component of international strategies to mitigate environmental pollution, climate change and oil dependency. The ability of consumers to assess the total cost of ownership (TCO) of EVs relative to internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) remains an important factor for EV uptake. The TCO of vehicles is not universal across different car segments and user profiles. We analyse and compare the TCO of ICEVs and EVs from 17 car segments across short- and long-term ownership periods, and further advance existing TCO approaches by integrating detailed activity-based driving profiles, taxation, grant structures and pricing. Results show that EV options in the most popular Irish car segments have existing battery EV options with a TCO averaging respectively 26% and 42% less than their equivalent petrol and diesel ICEV options over a 4-year ownership term when the current grant is included. This integrated method for granular TCO evaluation offers important insights for this market and affords scope to investigate how changes in travel patterns, car-segment pricing, taxation, grant policy, fuel costs, and carbon pricing and other transport policies can all affect TCO values over time across a broad range of market offerings.