Should you buy an electric car? An honest decision guide

• An EV is a good fit if you can charge where you park, drive enough to benefit from lower running costs, and value lower emissions or total cost of ownership over the lowest upfront price.

• The biggest practical barriers may be poor charging access, frequent very long trips, regular towing, or buying a new EV and selling it quickly, because depreciation can be steep.

• The most common worries - range, battery degradation, and charging inconvenience - are less serious during real ownership than many buyers expect beforehand.  

1. What is important to me when buying a car? Is it the purchase price, total cost of ownership (TCO), environmental impact, pleasure of driving, or something else?

2. Where will you charge? Can you charge at home, at work, or in your street? Or will you rely on roadside (fast) chargers?

3. How long is your longest regular trip? We’re not talking about your longest trip ever, but about your longest – let’s say – monthly trip.

4. Will you buy new or used, and how long do you intend to keep the car?

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There are a few key differences between EVs and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, and between your experience as an owner. If you care most about the initial purchase price, in most (but not all) cases you’re still better off buying an ICE vehicle. If total cost of ownership (TCO) and the environment are more important to you, EVs are the way to go. Let’s dive into the differences.

EVs run on electricity (stored in batteries), ICE vehicles on fossil fuels. As a result, the carbon footprint of driving EVs is lower than the footprint of driving ICE vehicles, even when EV batteries are charged with grey electricity. Yes, the upfront carbon footprint of producing an EV is higher than that of an ICE vehicle – which we call the EV’s carbon dept – but that’s quite easily made up for during usage. The greener the electricity mix, the lower the impact. EVs also cause less air and noise pollution than ICE vehicles.

The downside of EVs is that charging – for now – takes longer than refueling an ICE vehicle. This is only an issue when recharging mid-trip, thus during the occasional longer trip. For daily trips, most people charge at home, in the street or at work, when the vehicle is idle anyways.

EVs on average also still come at a price premium compared to an equivalent ICE vehicle. EVs’ initial purchase price is often higher, although – partly under the influence of Chinese brands – this is definitely not always the case anymore. Also, when looking at the total cost of ownership, EVs often win the battle. Below there’s a tool with which you can determine the price difference for your specific situation.

On the flipside, Maintenance is easier and cheaper as there are fewer moving parts. And EV users report a smoother acceleration experience.

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Don’t skip this consideration. Being able to charge where you park – whether that is around your home, at work or at the supermarket – makes owning an EV convenient, cheaper and is often better for your car’s battery, as slow home or workplace chargers degrade your battery more slowly than fast chargers.

Thus, it’s not a coincidence that in Europe, 66% of EV drivers have a home charger and another 17% have a shared charger at their residence. Of their total amount of charging, Europeans do 56% at home and 18% at work or private depot charger. The rest is done using public fast or slow chargers. In the Americas, 63% is done at home and 13% at work. And in China, 40% at home, 21% at work.  

Heavy reliance on public fast chargers crushes the cost benefit of driving an EV. It will take years extra for you to compensate for the purchase price premium – of 20% on average – of your EV.

Battery range is often stated by prospect EV buyers as a big hurdle for making the switch. However, this hurdle is largely imagined. Actual EV owners report range is hardly ever an issue.  

The average new battery electric car has a range of almost 380 kilometres, while the average daily drive kilometres. That’s why range anxiety disappears during ownership: only 17% of owners globally name range as an actual disadvantage of their car, against it being the second most cited reason people give for not buying one.  

When you occasionally drive more than 380 kilometres, that doesn’t mean an EV is not for you. It means you have to think about what those trips will look like. Is a 20-to-30-minute coffee-and-pee break something you can live with?

Two caveats worth taking seriously are weather and towing. Cold weather and towing heavy weights reduce range, so if you live in an area with very harsh winters or if you tow regularly, take this into consideration.  

The average price of an EV dropped for the first time in Europe in 2025. And 30% of BEVs sold were priced below the average of their ICE equivalents, meaning the price cap is closing. However, most EV’s still come at a price premium compared to their ICE equivalents. For the average battery electric vehicle, this premium is around 20%.  

When it comes to total cost of ownership of an EV versus an ICE vehicle, it depends a lot on how long you intend to keep a car and how much you drive. The more you drive and the longer you keep your car, the cheaper the EV is in comparison. When buying second or third hand, an EV is practically always cheaperthan a second or third hand ICE equivalent. Depending on the size, your benefit is between 19% and 27%. That is between €262 and €849 per year.  

That’s because EVs depreciate faster than ICE vehicles. After three years, battery electric vehicles retainedaround 37% of their value, against 49% for the car market as a whole. That’s bad news if you buy a new EVand sell it after three years, but good news if you’re the one buying the used car.  

If cost worries you: the depreciation that makes new EVs an expensive proposition, is exactly what’smaking a used one cheap.  

Do EV batteries degrade fast?

Prospect EV buyers often worry about battery health. The evidence suggests there’s no need to.  

Battery failure is rare: failure rate was down to 0,1% in 2023. And batteries degrade very slowly. Analysis of 22,700 vehicles across 21 makes and models shows that on average, batteries still hold 80% of their original capacity after 8 years. Swedish testing of almost 10,000 batteries between 2022 and 2026 found most models retain between 95% and 97% of their original battery capacity after a staggering 100,000 kilometres driven.  

And you’re protected as a consumer. EU rules require a minimum battery warranty of 8 years or 160,000 kilometres, with at least a 70% capacity retention.  

None of that tells you about the specific car in front of you, if you’re buying second hand. This means, when buying second hand, you should:

1. Ask the seller for a state-of-health reading. Increasingly, marketplaces such as OTOMOTO, AutoTrader, Autovit, and La Centrale, require sellers to upload one, or even help them produce one.  

2. Check whether the original battery warranty is still running, and whether is transfers to you.  

From 2027, EVs sold in the EU must carry a digital battery passport, disclosing the state of health, which will make this far easier.  

Are EVs better for the environment than ICE vehicles?

Over its lifetime, an electric car emits way less carbon than a petrol equivalent. Building an EV is more carbon intensive than building an ICE vehicle, but that upfront carbon dept is repaid over the vehicle’s life.  

Both EVs and ICE vehicles have supply chain emissions. The emissions to get the electricity or fuel to the car. For an EV, that largely depends on the electricity source. For example, if you charge on the average Dutch grid mix, that’s 62 grams of CO_2-eq per kilometre. The greener the grid mix becomes in the future, the lower these emissions. If you charge using your own solar panels, supply chain emissions are 0. For a petrol car, supply chain emissions are 46 grams per kilometre.

And then there are tailpipe emissions, from turning the power source into motion. A  petrol car burns fossil fuels, resulting in 149 grams of CO_2-eq per kilometre for a medium-sized car. Turning electricity into motion emits 0.  

That brings us to a total of 0 to 62 grams of CO_2-eq per kilometre for an EV driven in The Netherlands, compared to 195 grams per kilometre for an ICE vehicle.  

Air quality is a separate, strong argument. Since EVs produce no tailpipe emissions, and since grey electricity is generally produced outside cities, they also don’t contribute to urban air pollution. Whereas ICE exhaust fumes are generated exactly where people are breathing.  

Does EV battery production lead to human rights violations?

Extracting lithium, nickel and cobalt that is needed for EV batteries is associated with harm to workers’ health, forced evictions, dangerous working conditions and child labour. Extracting fossil fuels is associated with a comparable set of risks, as well as political instability and conflict. New EU due diligence rules now oblige battery manufacturers and traders to address these risks in their supply chains.  

On the tailpipe side, the situation is clear: a medium petrol car emits 149 grams of CO2 per kilometre, an EV zero.  

To what extent an EV is more climate friendly depends on where the electricity comes from.  

There’s a chance an EV is not right for you (yet). Be willing to reach this conclusion. An EV is not right for you if:

1. You have no realistic way to charge where you park, and no charger on a route you are already using. We’d advice you to ask your building manager, your employer, or your local government to install chargers. If that doesn’t work, don’t buy an EV yet.  

2. You drive very little. Cost and environmental savings are earned per kilometre. Economic and environmental parity between EV’s and ICE vehicles are reached after a minimum number of kilometres per year.  

3. You regularly tow or make very long trips through areas within charging coverage.  

“Not yet” is a legitimate answer, and a temporary one. Your situation, battery lifespan, and charging infrastructure and technology change all the time. Perhaps in a year or two, the answer is “definitely yes”.  

Nearly every fear that stops people from buying an EV disappears during ownership. Range, battery life, charging availability: on all three, owners report fewer problems than non-owners expect. The exceptionsare faster depreciation on new cars than ICE equivalents, and charging access if you cannot charge at home, at work or in the street. Those two are worth taking seriously. Most of the rest resolves itself once you own an EV.