How many miles per gallon can an EV do?

Weird question, right? EVs don't use gallons. Bear with us on this one, the answer is pretty interesting.

Miles Per Gallon (MPG). It's the number that tells you how much bang you're getting for your buck. And most of us know what good is in a petrol car. Less than 20 is pretty poor. 30-40 is OK. Over 50 and you’re doing well.

But then you go electric, and suddenly that simple number is gone, and you're left with a question - how many miles per gallon am I getting, in "old money"?

That got us thinking. Instead of asking people to learn a new language, why don’t we just put things in terms that people already understand?

So, we've created a new measure: Miles Per Gallon electric (MPGe). It’s the simplest way to see how much cheaper it is to run an EV compared to a petrol car.

MPGe (miles per gallon electric) is how many miles an EV will go for the cost of one gallon of petrol.

Let's do the maths, step by step. Here's an example for someone who does all of their charging at home:

Not bad - 407 miles per gallon!

Suddenly, your 40-50 MPG petrol car is directly comparable to your EV's 400 MPGe! It clearly shows the huge jump in efficiency you get from going electric.

Here is the MPGe for a handful of the UK's top selling electric cars, for 3 different charging scenarios.

Even if you do 20% of your charging on more rapid or ultra-rapid public chargers, you'll still get 2-3 times the MPG of a petrol car.

A few notes on our data sources

• Cost of electricity
  • All home - Intelligent Octopus Go - EV Saver tariff, 6p per kWh.
  • Mostly home - 80% at home, 6p per kWh, 20% Rapid / Ultra Rapid, 76p per kWh
  • Public - 80% Slow / Fast, 52p per kWh, 20% Rapid / Ultra Rapid, 76p per kWh
• Efficiency - We have used Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) Combined Consumption from manufacture websites, which represents a realistic mix of city and motorway driving.

Not everything yet. We'll start using MPGe with a few EVs we offer. You'll see that start popping up on our website and emails. If people like it, we'll start making it standard.