Techno-Economic Comparison of Total Cost of Ownership of Electric and Diesel Vehicles

Abstract

Despite their low environmental impact, electrical vehicles have low penetration in the automotive market. Consumers are reluctant for technical reasons (limited driving range and long charging time) but also for an economic reason (high investment costs). Electric vehicle total cost of ownership (TCO) is often perceived as higher than for a thermal car, especially in Europe where diesel cars have a lower TCO than gasoline cars. Accurate TCO estimations are critical, but most of the techno-economic studies of electrified vehicles are based on very simplified energy models. In this paper, a techno-economic model is developed using an accurate technical model of an electric vehicle and a diesel car of the same segment. These technical models are validated by experimental measurements on real cars using real driving cycles. These models are then coupled to economic models to calculate TCO for a French case study. The total cost of ownership of the studied electric car is lower than for the equivalent diesel car by about 1000€ for a 5-year ownership period. Of particular importance is the finding that using real driving cycles instead of standard driving cycles decreases the TCO of electric cars while simultaneously increasing the TCO of diesel vehicles. This has implications for techno-economic models, suggesting that the typical TCO approach that uses manufacturer-reported standard cycle data may be systemically biased towards thermal vehicles. In order to understand how TCO may change in different locations, a sensitivity analysis varies different technical and economic factors. Government subsidy, ownership duration, and vehicle depreciation are the most important factors for the TCO of electric vehicles. However, TCO of the electric cars can be lower than the TCO of equivalent diesel cars under a wide range of reasonable inputs.

Electric and gasoline vehicle total cost of ownership across US cities

“…Most studies investigate vehicle TCO at a national level, with recent studies covering China (Ouyang et al, 2021), France (Desreveaux et al, 2020),…”

“…Most studies investigate vehicle TCO at a national level, with recent studies covering China (Ouyang et al., 2021), France (Desreveaux et al., 2020), Ireland (Guo et al., 2022), Italy (Franzò et al., 2022; Scorrano et al., 2020), Korea (Moon & Lee, 2019), Malaysia (Mustapa et al., 2020), New Zealand (Hasan et al., 2021), Norway (Figenbaum, 2022), Poland (Ewelina & Grysa, 2021), and Thailand (Suttakul et al., 2022). Some studies compare across countries (Baek et al., 2021; Palmer et al., 2018).…”

Modeling the Impact of Different Policies on Electric Vehicle Adoption: An Investigative Study

“…Several studies [14][15][16][17][18] have focused on evaluating the economic competitiveness of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in a market historically dominated by traditional Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (ICEVs), with mixed results. Economic competitiveness was calculated by considering 3 stages of the vehicle lifetime: manufacturing until sales, during operation, and the recycling stages in Ref.…”

“…Similarly, economic analysis comparing ICEVs and EVs during their operation stage only (from sales to disposal) has indicated EVs are still relatively expensive compared to ICEVs, despite the progressive reduction in the selling price of EVs over the years [15]. On the other hand, it has been argued that while EVs are unable to compete with popular ICEVs, they can be more financially attractive compared to some of the European premium brands [18]. These studies, however, simplify their analysis by ignoring the discounted effect of money.…”

Renewability and Robustness Analysis and Review for Sustainable-Technology Propulsion Systems in Modern Transportation Infrastructure Administration

“…Fully electric vehicles were developed as an initiative to replace completely non-renewable propulsion systems. However, due to the lack of high-energy density storage systems and charging stations spread across less developed areas [13,14], the vehicle travel range is reduced compared to ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles [15].…”