UC Davis

Total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis assesses the cost competitiveness of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs). The TCO literature characterizes an average driver to identify a future parity point where the ownership cost of a PEV is equal to or lower than an ICEV. This research had taken a different approach for TCO analysis, estimating costs of actual PEV early adopters in California between 2011 and 2020 using multi-year survey responses that provided valuable insights regarding vehicle purchase choice, driving and charging behavior, and sociodemographic attributes.The TCO comparative analysis was done by vehicle segments (compact, mid-size, etc.), using selected models from the year 2018 and included incentives. The results show that the higher the segment was, the lower the annual mileage required to achieve a comparative TCO. For the mid-luxury segment, cost parity was achieved with only 10,100 annual miles, while for the subcompact segment, parity was reached when driving over 27,000 miles annually. As PEVs enter the mass market these days, these findings demonstrate the importance of incentive programs that are structured to benefit specific market segments that need them the most, rather than applying subsidies across all models, as done past decade to encourage early adoption.