At 12,000 miles a year, is an electric car actually cheaper than gas?

The Tesla is $42,490. The Camry is $29,500. Then add the $1,400 you will spend getting a charger onto your garage wall, which nobody brings up in the showroom, and the Tesla is out the door at $43,890.

So the electric car starts $14,390 down. Hold on to that number. Everything below is an attempt to claw it back.

This is the part electric owners tell you about, and they are not exaggerating.

Charging at home for five years costs $2,289. Add $1,498 for public chargers, covering the fifth of your miles done away from the house, and that is the entire energy bill. The Camry needs $5,307 of gasoline to go the same distance, at $4.16 a gallon and 47 miles to it, and remember that is a hybrid, a car already very good at not using fuel.

The workshop says the same thing. Scheduled servicing over five years: $950 against $2,400. Unscheduled repairs: $1,200 against $1,550. No oil, no exhaust, no transmission fluid, and brake pads that barely wear because the motor does most of the slowing down.

Tires are the one exception. $1,600 against $1,200. Heavy cars eat tires, and no drivetrain fixes that.

Net it out: $2,920 to the Tesla on running costs.

$19,100 comes back at the end against the Camry's $14,800, so another $4,300 in the Tesla's favor. The honest footnote is that it keeps a smaller share of what you paid; it only hands back more because you handed over more.

Now put the whole thing together. Ahead by $2,920 on running and $4,300 on resale. Behind by $14,390 on price. And insurance quietly digs the hole deeper, $2,210 a year against $1,840, which over five renewals is $11,050 against $9,200.

$43,576 against $34,557. Per month, $726 against $576.

The monthly number is the one that stings, because that gap is a car payment on something else entirely.

When you drive more. That is genuinely most of the answer.

The $5,307 of gasoline scales with every mile you cover. The $14,390 you overpaid at the dealership does not scale with anything. Drive far enough past 12,000 miles a year and the lines cross, and this page stops being true for you.

The other figure worth arguing with is resale. $19,100 in five years is a forecast, not a fact, and it is the largest single number in the table. If you think the used electric market will be kinder than that, or crueler, put your own number in and watch what happens. That is what the button at the bottom is for.

Whether you can plug in where you sleep. The $2,289 assumes a charger at home and somewhere to park under it. Without that you buy your electricity at public prices and everything above falls apart. If you are in an apartment with street parking, honestly, stop reading here.

And purchase incentives. We left them out because they turn on your income, your state and the exact trim, and they change faster than we republish. If you qualify for one, take it off the $42,490 and see how much of that $14,390 survives.