The cost of charging the battery depends on the price paid per kWh of electricity – which varies with location. As of November 2012, a Nissan Leaf driving 500 mi (800 km) per week is estimated to cost US$600 per year in charging costs in Illinois, U.S.The EV1 energy use was about 11 kW·h/100 km (0.40 MJ/km; 0.18 kW·h/mi). The 2011/12 Nissan Leaf uses 21.25 kW·h/100 km (0.765 MJ/km; 0.3420 kW·h/mi) according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. These differences reflect the different design and utility targets for the vehicles, and the varying testing standards. The energy use greatly depends on the driving conditions and driving style. Nissan estimates that the Leaf’s 5-year operating cost will be US$1,800 versus US$6,000 for a gasoline car in the US According to Nissan, the operating cost of the Leaf in the UK is 1.75 pence per mile (1.09p per km) when charging at an off-peak electricity rate, while a conventional petrol-powered car costs more than 10 pence per mile (6.25p per km). These estimates are based on a national average of British Petrol Economy 7 rates as of January 2012, and assumed 7 hours of charging overnight at the night rate and one hour in the daytime charged at the Tier-2 daytime rate.

The following table compares out-of-pocket fuel costs estimated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency according to its official ratings for fuel economy (miles per gallon gasoline equivalent in the case of plug-in electric vehicles) for series production all-electric passenger vehicles rated by the EPA as of October 2014, versus EPA rated most fuel efficient plug-in hybrid with long distance range (Chevrolet Volt), gasoline-electric hybrid car (Toyota Prius third generation), and EPA’s average new 2013/14 vehicle, which has a fuel economy of 23 mpg-US (10 L/100 km; 28 mpg-imp).

EV Technology with Electric cars have several benefits over conventional internal combustion engine automobiles, including a significant reduction of local air pollution, as they have no tailpipe, and therefore do not emit harmful tailpipe pollutants from the onboard source of power at the point of operation; reduced greenhouse gas emissions from the onboard source of power, depending on the fuel used for electricity generation to charge the batteries.  Electric vehicles generally, compared to gasoline vehicles show significant reductions in overall well-wheel global carbon emissions due to the highly carbon intensive production in mining, pumping, refining, transportation and the efficiencies obtained with gasoline.