EV Road Trip Cost Calculator

Plan EV road-trip energy and charging stops

This calculator estimates the energy needed for an EV trip, the electricity cost, and the minimum number of full-battery equivalents required along the way. It is useful for budget planning before you choose charging stops.

Enter trip distance in miles, the vehicle's efficiency in kWh per 100 miles, the electricity price, and usable battery capacity. Usable capacity is the portion of the pack you actually plan to use, not necessarily the advertised gross capacity.

Formula

Energy needed = (trip distance / 100) x vehicle efficiency.

Trip cost = energy needed x electricity price.

Full-charge equivalents = energy needed / usable battery capacity.

Estimated charging stops = max(0, ceiling(full-charge equivalents) - 1).

Example

A 420-mile trip in a car that uses 30 kWh per 100 miles needs about 126 kWh. At $0.32 per kWh, energy costs about $40.32. With a 75 kWh usable battery, the trip needs 1.68 full-charge equivalents, so the simplified stop estimate is one charging stop.

Limitations

The stop count is a planning baseline. Real routing depends on charger spacing, starting state of charge, desired reserve, speed, weather, elevation, traffic, trailer or roof-rack drag, and charger reliability. Build a reserve into the route rather than trying to arrive at every charger nearly empty.