EV vs petrol: what 100 km really costs in Europe

Here's the kitchen-table version, at the EU averages my running-cost calculator starts from. All energy, nothing else.

Petrol. 7.4 l/100 km, worked out from the European Commission's on-board meter report of July 2024, at €1.95 a litre: €14.43.

EV. The Renault 5 40 kWh is rated at 14.4 kWh/100 km, which plus 25% is 18 kWh. Charged 85% at home at €0.28 and 15% in public at €0.55, it costs €5.77.

Full hybrid. The Yaris Hybrid is rated at 3.8 l/100 km. Plus 20% is 4.6 l, which at €1.95 is €8.97.

Over 11,400 km, Germany's 2025 average per car by the KBA figures WEB.DE reports, that's €1,645, €658 and €1,023 a year. I couldn't read an EU-wide mileage figure, so use your own. And those are small cars against an average petrol car, so match the sizes when you do your own.

Why the odd percentages

WLTP flatters every car, by different amounts. The Commission found petrol and diesel cars about 20% above it on the road. For EVs I use 25%, the calculator's default, which is my judgement and not a test result. ADAC's bench test, which includes charging losses, gives you a check: 17.3 kWh against 15.2 rated for a 52 kWh Renault 5, in April 2025. 18.2 against 15.2 for a Skoda Elroq 85. So 25% is a little cautious against ADAC's bench.

Winter isn't mild. In ADAC's test at 0°C at mostly motorway speeds, reported by Heise in January 2026, consumption ran an average of 57% above WLTP. WLTP figures already include charging losses, because the test includes a recharge, as EVDB NZ explains, so I don't add them on top. ADAC says the on-board computer's reading leaves them out, so it will flatter the car by comparison.

Four countries, four answers

The averages hide a lot. Using each country's numbers, here are the Renault 5 at 85% home, the same car on public charging only, the average petrol car at 7.4 l, and the Yaris at 4.6 l. Home prices come from Eurostat for the first half of 2026, public from Eleport's October 2026 fast-charging medians (Eleport runs chargers, so read those as an operator's figures), and petrol from the Weekly Oil Bulletin of October 26, 2026.

• Germany (€0.3618 home, €0.59 public, €2.167 petrol): EV €7.13, EV public only €10.62, petrol €16.04, hybrid €9.97.
• France (€0.2485, €0.53, €2.181): EV €5.23, EV public only €9.54, petrol €16.14, hybrid €10.03.
• Italy (€0.3142, €0.74, €2.006): EV €6.81, EV public only €13.32, petrol €14.84, hybrid €9.23.
• Netherlands (€0.2440, €0.70, €2.313): EV €5.62, EV public only €12.60, petrol €17.12, hybrid €10.64.

France and the Netherlands are kindest with a home charger. Only France stays kind without one: public-only there beats the hybrid. Italy is the harshest, and public-only costs €4.09 more than the hybrid. In the Netherlands, cheap home power and dear public charging make a wallbox worth far more than in France.

None of those hold for you if your tariff differs. Your bill beats Eurostat.

What moves it most

Where you charge, by a long way. Public-only at €0.55 takes the Renault from €5.77 to €9.90 per 100 km. That's more than the Yaris at the same EU prices, so home against public charging is the sum I'd do first.

Fuel price comes next. At a hypothetical €1.60 a litre, the petrol car costs €11.84 and the Yaris €7.36. The EV still wins with a charger at home. Without one, at €0.55, the hybrid wins easily.

Then your car. A big SUV takes more of both. Plug the actual model into the calculator, with your own kilometres. And a plug-in hybrid doesn't belong in this list at all, because it has two costs and no single answer: the plug-in sum has the reasoning.

What this leaves out

Insurance, tyres, tax, servicing and depreciation. ADAC makes the same point: purchase price, repairs and loss of value all belong in a real total, and energy is only one line. Grants aren't here, and neither is the price gap between the cars, which is often the bigger number.

I'd count the savings per year, then hold them against the price difference for the two exact cars. At €365 a year between the EV and that hybrid, at EU averages, a €3,000 gap takes about eight years to close. A €10,000 gap takes 27.

Prices for the two cars here are German list prices checked 2 November 2026: €26,290 for the Renault and €25,500 for the Toyota. Other countries differ.