Hybrid car cost calculator
Thinking about purchasing a hybrid vehicle? This Department of Energy site will allow you to compare the lifetime costs and air emissions of a hybrid to those of a conventional vehicle. It even has data on makes and models, so you won't have to enter any information.
For example: Compare a 4-cylinder Toyota Prius to a 6-cylinder Ford Escape. For the Prius, the purchase price is $19,222, with a fuel economy of 60 mpg in the city and 51 on the highway. The Ford Escape, at $23,280, gets 18 mpg in the city and 22 on the highway.
Enter your annual mileage (15,000), the lifespan of your vehicle (7 years) and average gasoline cost ($2.20). Other factors are resale value and annual maintenance costs. Enter yours or use the site's default for your chosen vehicles. In this case, the cumulative cost of the Prius over seven years was $20,838.30 (taking into consideration a resale value of $5,598.53), while the cumulative cost of the Escape was $30,914.28 (with a resale value of $6,269.98). That's an average annual savings of $1,439.43 and an average per-mile savings of $0.10 with the Prius.