⚡ Will an EV work for my week?

NZ-friendly range fit + running cost comparison

🚦 Updated with current NZ fuel prices · March 2026
ℹ️ General disclaimer This tool is a rough planning aid to help you understand how an EV might fit your life and what running costs could look like. It’s not financial advice, purchase advice, or a guarantee — please double‑check details and talk to your own advisors before making decisions.

👋 Welcome

This calculator helps you quickly test whether an EV fits your normal week and compare likely running costs against your current petrol or diesel car. It is only a few short steps and usually takes 2–4 minutes.

  • What you will enter: your weekly driving, an EV choice, and your fuel/electricity assumptions.
  • What is included in EV running costs: electricity (home/public blend), EV maintenance estimate, and EV RUC (Road User Charges).
  • What is included in petrol/diesel running costs: fuel spend and ICE maintenance estimate (fuel tax is already inside pump prices).
  • What you get at the end: range-fit guidance, annual and multi-year cost comparison, and a plain-English recommendation.

1) 🚗 Your week (estimate)

Think of this like telling a mechanic how many town runs and motorway trips you do — it helps size the “tank”. EVs actually love predictable, repeatable weeks like this.

One-way distance to work ? 15 km
Days travelled to work ? 5 days/week
Daily chores/events distance ? 12 km
This is the part most people underestimate. A decent rule of thumb: school/kindy + groceries + sports can easily be 8–25km per “errand day”.
Chores/events frequency ? 4 times/week

2) ⚡ Choose an EV

This is like picking engine size and fuel tank in an ICE — except with EVs you care more about battery size and efficiency than cylinders and litres.

EV model (preset) ? Typical EV
State of Health (SOH) of the battery ? 90 %
Planning buffer (reserve) ? 20 %
Your final guidance
Working it out...

Complete the wizard and we will summarise whether this EV setup looks comfortable for your week and how the running costs compare with your current car.

📅
weekly km (estimate)
🗓️
annual km
🧭
“big day” km (with buffer)

Range fit
Estimated usable range

3) ⛽ Petrol / Diesel comparison

Imagine telling a fuel company how often you fill up and what you drive — this lets us estimate how much you currently burn in fuel each year.

Fuel type ? Petrol 91
Fuel price ? $2.90 /L
Your current car efficiency ? 11.1 L/100km

⚡ Charging & electricity

This is the EV version of fuel price and fill‑ups — except most “fills” happen quietly at home while you sleep.

Home electricity rate ? $0.37 /kWh
% charged at home ? 85 %
EV efficiency (kWh/100km) ? 18 kWh/100km
⛽ Your current car
$0
per year in fuel
⚡ EV
$0
per year in electricity (blended)
Estimated annual running-cost difference
$0
Includes servicing + EV RUC.
$0
3 years
$0
5 years
$0
10 years

📊 Cost per 100km comparison

Fuel car
$—
EV (home)
$—
EV (public DC)
$—

🧰 Maintenance & annual cost breakdown

ICE maintenance level
EV maintenance level
CategoryFuel carEVEV saves
Fuel / electricity
Maintenance (est.)
Road User Chargesincl. in fuel tax
Total running cost

Range maths is a planning estimate (real range varies with speed, hills, wind, tyres, heating, and battery condition). Defaults: Public DC fast charging ~$0.82/kWh · EV RUC $76/1,000km.

📬 Updates (newsletter)