While electric vehicles (EVs) may save drivers gas, that may not be enough to balance the cost of owning the vehicle long term when depreciation and purchase price are factored in, according to AAA’s Your Driving Costs (YDC) annual survey.
“Purely from a money standpoint, our analysis showed hybrids were slightly cheaper than the equivalent gas vehicle in all four categories we compared,” Austin Shivers, senior engineer at AAA who helped conduct the survey, told Electronics360. “EVs were more of a mixed bag — cheaper in some categories, more expensive in others. Hybrids hit a sweet spot: they save on fuel, but resale value holds up better than EVs, and maintenance is similar to or even lower than a comparable gas vehicle.”
AAA evaluated selected top-selling models in four categories — medium sedans, compact SUVs, medium SUVs and pickup trucks. In all, 34 models across fuel, maintenance, repair and tire costs, registration and taxes, license, depreciation and finance charges were evaluated.
“Current gas prices have made hybrids a bit more affordable than the gas vehicles we compared them to,” Shivers said. “Against EVs, the gap comes down to depreciation and purchase price — and everything purchase price touches, like financing and insurance.”
At the time of publishing, national U.S. gasoline prices are on average about $1.18 higher than this time in 2025, according to AAA data, improving the relative affordability of hybrids and EVs.
Hybrid vehicles were found to be the cheapest among total ownership costs according to an annual AAA survey. Source: Markus Spiske/Unsplash
Hybrids becoming the norm?
Hybrids are growing in adoption by both drivers and automakers.
Toyota has gone the furthest in pushing hybrids as the benchmark, Shivers said, and Honda is making progress in this area as well. The RAV4 and Camry are two models from Toyota that are now hybrid only.
“The hybrid powertrain is pretty mainstream at this point,” Shivers said.
But this doesn’t mean hybrids will be the majority among all vehicles. “A few years ago we were talking about EVs becoming the standard in the same way,” Shivers said.
Lower fuel costs but…
Meanwhile, EVs delivered the lowest fuel costs of the three vehicle types compared with charging costs of about 66% to 70% lower than fuel costs for traditional gas vehicles.
However, those savings were outweighed by higher depreciation, fees and finance costs and overall vehicle purchase price, according to AAA YDC data.
This isn't a new dynamic, Shivers said — EVs have consistently carried higher depreciation and purchase costs. But the gap is narrowing for some models.
“The Model 3, for example, is priced much closer to comparable gas cars,” Shivers said. “Other EV categories still lean more toward the luxury end, which is a factor. But there are more models coming out that are closer in price to a normal gas vehicle.”
