Research Publications

We assess the total cost of ownership (TCO) of internal combustion engine (ICEV), hybrid (HEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV), and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in the United States. As previous studies have shown, we find that current new BEVs, with some exceptions for smaller or shorter-range vehicles, have a higher TCO than conventional alternatives. However, we also present the first comparative analysis of the TCO of used vehicles, which make up 70% of all vehicle purchases in the U.S. We find that for used vehicles, BEVs have the lowest TCO among all powertrains. As vehicle TCO varies spatially and with use patterns, we test 5 different vehicle classes, 17 different U.S. cities, and 5 different charging strategies. The finding that BEVs have the lowest total cost for used vehicles is robust across these variables and is largely driven by vehicle depreciation patterns. We conduct a regression analysis based on 260 000 publicly available used vehicle listings, collected from January to December of 2024. We find that BEVs depreciate more rapidly than other powertrains in the first several years of vehicle life but follow similar depreciation patterns afterwards. With a 7 year ownership period, buying a used (3 year-old) midsize SUV vs a new midsize SUV has a TCO savings of approximately $3000 for an ICEV, $1000 for an HEV or PHEV, and $13000 for a BEV. These results highlight an opportunity for savings via BEV adoption among used vehicle purchasers.