Most of the running cost of an electric vehicle can be attributed to the maintenance and replacement of the battery pack because an electric vehicle has only around 5 moving parts in its motor, compared to a gasoline car that has hundreds of parts in its internal combustion engine. Electric cars have expensive batteries that must be replaced but otherwise incur very low maintenance costs, particularly in the case of current Lithium based designs.
To calculate the cost per kilometer of an electric vehicle it is therefore necessary to assign a monetary value to the wear incurred on the battery. This can be difficult due to the fact that it will have a slightly lower capacity each time it is charged and is only considered to be at the end of its life when the owner decides its performance is no longer acceptable. Even then an 'end of life' battery is not completely worthless as it can be re-purposed, recycled or used as a spare.
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| The Tesla Roadster is sold in the US and Europe and has a range of 245 miles per charge. |
Since a battery is made of many individual cells that do not necessarily wear evenly periodically replacing the worst of these can retain the vehicle's range.
The Tesla Roadster's very large battery pack is expected to last seven years with typical driving and costs US$12,000 when pre-purchased today. Driving 40 miles (64 km) per day for seven years or 102,200 miles (164,500 km) leads to a battery consumption cost of US$0.1174 per 1 mile (1.6 km) or US$4.70 per 40 miles (64 km). The company Better Place provides another cost comparison as they anticipate meeting contractual obligations to deliver batteries as well as clean electricity to recharge the batteries at a total cost of US$0.08 per 1 mile (1.6 km) in 2010, US$0.04 per mile by 2015 and US$0.02 per mile by 2020.40 miles (64 km) of driving would initially cost US$3.20 and fall over time to US$0.80.
In 2010 the U.S. government estimated that a battery with a 100 miles (160 km) range would cost about US$33,000. Concerns remain about durability and longevity of the battery.
Nissan estimates that the Leaf's 5 year operating cost will be US$1,800 versus US$6,000 for a gasoline car.The documentary film Who Killed the Electric Car shows a comparison between the parts that require replacement in a gasoline powered cars and EV1s, with the garages stating that they bring the electric cars in every 5,000 mi (8,000 km), rotate the tires, fill the windshield washer fluid and send them back out again.